ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

AND    OTHER   ADDRESSES 

IN   ENGLAND 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


AND  OTHER  ADDRESSES 
IN  ENGLAND 


BY 


JOSEPH  H.   CHOATE 


Of    TH« 

UNIVERSITY 

of 


NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO 
1910 


A 


o  fi't, 


Copyright,  1910,  by 
THE  CENTURY  Co. 

Published,   October,  1910 


Electrotyped  and  Printed  by 
G.  H.  Simonds  &  Co.,  Boston 


PREFACE 

TOURING  my  long  residence  in  London  as  Am- 
*-*  bassador  of  the  United  States,  it  was  my 
good  fortune  to  be  brought  into  close  contact  with 
the  British  people,  which  gave  me  a  unique  oppor 
tunity  to  study  their  habits  and  characteristics, 
and  their  social  and  political  institutions.  My  one 
instruction  from  President  McKinley,  when  he 
handed  me  my  letter  of  credence,  was  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  both  countries  by  cultivating  the 
most  friendly  relations  between  them.  To  this 
end  I  visited  many  parts  of  Great  Britain,  and 
wherever  I  went  I  found  this  message  of  good 
will  most  cordially  reciprocated.  I  thought  that 
one  effective  way  of  carrying  out  this  instruction 
was  to  do  what  I  could  to  make  the  people  better 
acquainted  with  the  United  States,  its  history,  its 
institutions  and  its  great  men,  which  would  show 
them  that  there  is  no  radical  difference  between 
us,  and  that  under  different  Constitutional  forms 
we  maintain  with  equal  fidelity  the  same  great 
causes  of  liberty  and  justice  and  human  progress. 
The  addresses  which  are  contained  in  this  vol- 


..,.,..., 


PREFACE 

ume  are  selected  from  many  which  were  delivered 
in  pursuit  of  this  general  object. 

The  four  great  Americans  whom  I  selected  for 
illustration  in  this  way,  Lincoln,  Franklin,  Hamil 
ton  and  Emerson,  were  certainly  no  better  known 
to  the  average  Englishman,  than  the  leading  public 
men  of  Great  Britain  of  corresponding  periods  are 
known  to  the  average  American,  but  great  interest 
was  manifested  in  hearing  about  them. 

Lincoln,  who  had  been  the  subject  of  much 
hostility  and  abuse  in  his  lifetime,  was  glorified 
in  England  as  in  all  other  countries  after  his 
death  as  the  great  martyr  and  emancipator. 
But  the  marvellous  story  of  his  life,  with  its 
strange  vicissitudes  and  tragical  incidents,  was 
not  at  all  familiar.  It  was  hardly  possible  under 
the  English  system  of  government  that  such  a 
character  and  career  could  be  developed,  but  none 
the  less  were  they  eager  to  hear  everything  about 
a  man  whose  record  seemed  little  short  of  mirac 
ulous.  When  they  realized  the  fact  that  the 
emancipation  of  four  million  slaves,  as  the  only 
means  of  preserving  the  existence  of  the  nation, 
was  all  his  work,  their  enthusiasm  for  him  knew 
no  bounds,  and  as  English  history  affords  no 
parallel  example  of  a  man  rising  by  his  own  ef 
forts,  and  the  events  of  his  time,  from  such 
humble  beginnings  to  such  a  pinnacle  of  lasting 

vi 


PREFACE 

fame,  they  were  proud  to  claim  him  as  one  of 
the  great  treasures  of  the  English-speaking  race. 

I  found  no  little  prejudice  still  existing  against 
Franklin,  a  survival,  I  suppose,  of  the  bitterness 
of  our  revolutionary  struggle,  in  which  he  came 
into  much  closer  contact  with  England  both  before 
and  during  the  war  than  any  other  American ;  — 
and  then  the  transmission  and  publication  of  the 
Hutchinson  letters  had  never  been  quite  forgiven 
or  forgotten.  But  as  I  believed  that  their  trans 
mission  was,  as  he  declared  himself,  one  of  the 
best  actions  of  his  life,  and  their  publication  was 
in  violation  of  his  injunctions,  I  was  glad  to  have 
an  opportunity  in  speaking  of  him  at  Birmingham 
to  develope  at  length  his  wonderful  career,  as 
first,  a  most  stalwart  champion  of  the  British 
Empire,  and  afterwards,  when  peace  and  union 
were  no  longer  possible,  as  one  of  the  greatest  of 
American  citizens. 

Hamilton  was  comparatively  unknown,  except 
to  lawyers,  scholars  and  great  readers.  There 
had  been  a  recent  rehabilitation  of  his  fame  in  a 
fascinating  work  of  fiction,  which  had  been  widely 
read  in  England  as  in  America,  but  the  real  facts 
of  the  great  work  of  that  surpassing  genius,  in 
upholding  the  arms  of  Washington  in  the  war,  in 
bringing  about  the  Convention  of  1787  which  made 
the  Federal  Constitution,  in  securing  its  adoption 

vii 


PREFACE 

by  the  people,  and  in  organizing  our  government 
under  it  were  not  widely  known,  and  it  was  a  great 
pleasure  to  tell  this  wonderful  story  to  the  stu 
dents  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

Emerson  is  a  general  favorite  among  all  read 
ing  and  thinking  people  in  Great  Britain,  and  his 
reputation  as  poet  and  philosopher  is  well  recog 
nized  and  established,  but  I  do  not  think  that  the 
extent  and  power  of  his  influence  on  public  ques 
tions  in  great  crises  was  fully  appreciated,  and 
it  was  a  source  of  pride  and  satisfaction  to  set 
forth  some  of  his  most  thrilling  utterances  in  the 
days  of  the  slavery  agitation  and  the  war,  when 
in  clarion  tones  he  appealed  to  the  conscience  of 
his  countrymen. 

No  subject  relating  to  America  interested  Eng 
lish  and  Scotch  people  more  than  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  and  its  place  in  the 
Constitution.  Even  learned  lawyers  and  jurists 
found  it  difficult  to  understand  how  two  distinct 
and  independent  governments  could  coexist  over 
the  same  people  and  the  same  territory  without 
clashing,  until  the  power  of  the  Supreme  Court 
to  adjust  all  differences  between  State  and  Fed 
eral  jurisdictions  was  taken  into  consideration; 
and  nowhere  is  greater  credit  given  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  framers  of  the  Federal  Constitution  with 
all  its  safeguards  for  property  and  liberty,  than 

viii 


PREFACE 

by  Englishmen,  who  nevertheless  recognize  the 
omnipotence  of  Parliament  as  the  cardinal  prin 
ciple  of  their  own  political  system. 

Education  in  America  is  a  subject  not  only  of 
great  curiosity  but  of  profound  interest  where  the 
general  subject  of  education  is  being  constantly 
agitated,  and  in  respect  to  which  each  country  has 
much  to  learn  from  others.  The  Board  of  Educa 
tion  in  Great  Britain  had  recently  published  two 
large  volumes  devoted  to  its  condition  and  prog 
ress  in  America  —  a  very  great  international  com 
pliment  —  and  when  the  opportunity  came  to  me 
to  speak  at  the  opening  of  the  Summer  Schools  at 
Oxford  on  the  same  theme  I  gladly  availed  myself 
of  it. 

It  was  also  a  satisfaction  to  demonstrate  to  the 
Sir  Walter  Scott  Club  of  Edinburgh  the  love  and 
respect  in  which  that  great  writer  is  held  through 
out  America,  and  what  an  elevating  and  educa 
tional  influence  he  has  exercised  there. 

The  Centenary  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  was  an  important  international  event  in 
which  it  was  my  privilege  to  participate  both  as 
Ambassador  and  as  Special  Delegate  of  the  Amer 
ican  Bible  Society. 

The  address  at  Lincoln's  Inn  on  the  occasion  of 
the  dinner  tendered  to  me  by  the  Bench  and  Bar 
of  England,  and  my  farewell  address  at  the  Man- 

ix 


PREFACE 

sion  House  at  the  Lord  Mayor's  Banquet  gave  me 
opportunities,  which  I  gladly  embraced,  to  ex 
press,  on  my  own  behalf  and  that  of  all  my  coun 
trymen,  gratitude  for  the  generous  hospitality 
and  cordial  welcome  which  had  been  always  ex 
tended  to  me  as  their  representative. 

As  a  loyal  son  of  Harvard  it  was  an  immense 
gratification  to  leave  behind  me  Mr.  LaFarge's 
window  in  Southwark  Cathedral  as  a  memorial 
of  John  Harvard,  and  to  enjoy  the  assistance  in 
the  ceremony  of  His  Grace  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  the  Bishop  of  Southwark  and  of  Mr. 
Bryce,  who  was  so  soon  to  come  to  us  as  His 
Majesty's  brilliant  and  popular  Ambassador. 

In  the  hope  that  these  efforts  have  done  some 
thing,  however  little,  in  the  language  of  President 
McKinley,  l  i  to  promote  the  welfare  of  both  coun 
tries  "  I  dedicate  the  volume  to  my  friends  on 
both  sides  of  the  water. 

STOCKBBIDGE,  September,  1910. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE          ....  v 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN        .  .  .  3 

Address    delivered    before    the    Edinburgh    Philosophical 
Institution,  November  13th,  1900 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 47 

Inaugural   address,  October    23rd,  1903,  before   the   Bir 
mingham  and  Midland  Institute. 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  .  ...       97 

Inaugural  address  March  19th,  1904,  before  the  Associated 
Societies  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON     .  ...     141 

Address  at  the  Passmore    Edwards   Institute,   June   15th, 
1903 

THE  SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES      .     157 
Address  delivered  before  the  Political  and  Social  Education 
League,  May  13th,  1903. 

EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA 199 

Inaugural  address,   August   1st,  1903,  at  the  opening  of 
the  summer  meeting  at  Oxford. 

SIR  WALTER  SCOTT 231 

Address  before  the  Edinburgh  Sir  Walter  Scott  Club,  Novem 
ber  llth,  1899. 

THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE 243 

Address  at  the  Centenary  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  London,  May,  1904. 

ADDRESS  AT  DINNER  GIVEN  TO  MR.  CHOATE  BY  THE 
BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  ENGLAND       ....     257 
At  Lincoln's  Inn,  April  Uth,  1905 
xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FAREWELL 273 

Address  at  the  Farewell  Banquet  given  to  Mr.  Choate,  by 
the  Lord  Mayor  at  the  Mansion  House  May  5th,  1905 

JOHN  HARVARD 289 

Address  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Harvard  Memorial  Win 
dow  presented  by  Mr.  Choate  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of 
St.  Saviour's  Church  (Southwark  Cathedral),  May 
23rd,  1905. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Address  delivered  before  the  Edinburgh  Philosophical 
Institution,  November  13th,  1900. 

WHEN  you  asked  me  to  deliver  the  Inaugural 
Address  on  this  occasion,  I  recognized  that 
I  owed  this  compliment  to  the  fact  that  I  was  the 
official  representative  of  America  —  and  in  select 
ing  a  subject  I  ventured  to  think  that  I  might  in 
terest  you  for  an  hour  in  a  brief  study  in  popular 
Government,  as  illustrated  by  the  life  of  the  most 
American  of  all  Americans.  I  therefore  offer  no 
apology  for  asking  your  attention  to  Abraham 
Lincoln  —  to  his  unique  character  and  the  part 
he  bore  in  two  important  achievements  of  modern 
history:  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  the 
American  Union  and  the  Emancipation  of  the 
colored  race. 

During  his  brief  term  of  power,  he  was  prob 
ably  the  object  of  more  abuse,  vilification  and 
ridicule  than  any  other  man  in  the  world;  but 
when  he  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  at  the 
very  moment  of  his  stupendous  victory,  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  vied  with  one  another  in 
paying  homage  to  his  character;  and  the  thirty- 
five  years  that  have  since  elapsed  have  established 
his  place  in  history  as  one  of  the  great  benefactors 
not  of  his  own  country  alone,  but  of  the  human 
race. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

One  of  many  noble  utterances  upon  the  occasion 
of  his  death  was  that  in  which  "  Punch  "  made 
its  magnanimous  recantation  of  the  spirit  with 
which  it  had  pursued  him :  — 

"  Beside  this  corpse  that  bears  for  winding  sheet 

The  stars  and  stripes  he  lived  to  rear  anew, 
Between  the  mourners  at  his  head  and  feet 
Say,  scurrile  jester,  is  there  room  for  you? 

Yes,  he  had  lived  to  shame  me  from  my  sneer 
To  lame  my  pencil,  and  confute  my  pen  — 

To  make  me  own  this  hind  —  of  princes  peer, 
This  rail-splitter  —  a  true  born  king  of  men." 

Fiction  can  furnish  no  match  for  the  romance  of 
his  life,  and  biography  will  be  searched  in  vain 
for  such  startling  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  so  great 
power  and  glory  won  out  of  such  humble  begin 
nings  and  adverse  circumstances. 

Doubtless,  you  are  all  familiar  with  the  salient 
points  of  his  extraordinary  career.  In  the  zenith 
of  his  fame  he  was  the  wise,  patient,  courageous, 
successful  ruler  of  men;  exercising  more  power 
than  any  monarch  of  his  time,  not  for  himself, 
but  for  the  good  of  the  people  who  had  placed  it 
in  his  hands ;  commander-in-chief  of  a  vast  mili 
tary  power,  which  waged  with  ultimate  success 
the  greatest  war  of  the  century;  the  triumphant 
champion  of  popular  Government,  the  deliverer 
of  four  millions  of  his  fellow  men  from  bondage ; 
honored  by  mankind  as  Statesman,  President  and 
Liberator. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Let  us  glance  now  at  the  first  half  of  the  brief 
life,  of  which  this  was  the  glorious  and  happy 
consummation.  Nothing  could  be  more  squalid 
and  miserable  than  the  home  in  which  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  born  —  a  one-roomed  cabin  without 
floor  or  window  in  what  was  then  the  wilderness 
of  Kentucky,  in  the  heart  of  that  frontier  life 
which  swiftly  moved  westward  from  the  Alle- 
ghanies  to  the  Mississippi,  always  in  advance  of 
schools  and  churches,  of  books  and  money,  of 
railroads  and  newspapers,  of  all  things  which  are 
generally  regarded  as  the  comforts  and  even 
necessaries  of  life.  His  father,  ignorant,  needy 
and  thriftless,  content  if  he  could  keep  soul  and 
body  together  for  himself  and  his  family,  was 
ever  seeking,  without  success,  to  better  his  un 
happy  condition  by  moving  on  from  one  such 
scene  of  dreary  desolation  to  another.  The  rude 
society  which  surrounded  them  was  not  much 
better.  The  struggle  for  existence  was  hard,  and 
absorbed  all  their  energies.  They  were  fighting 
the  forest,  the  wild  beast  and  the  retreating  sav 
age.  From  the  time  when  he  could  barely  handle 
tools  until  he  attained  his  majority,  Lincoln's 
life  was  that  of  a  simple  farm  laborer,  poorly 
clad,  housed  and  fed,  at  work  either  on  his  father 's 
wretched  farm,  or  hired  out  to  neighboring 
farmers.  But  in  spite,  or  perhaps  by  means,  of 
this  rude  environment,  he  grew  to  be  a  stalwart 
giant,  reaching  six  feet  four  at  nineteen,  and 
fabulous  stories  are  told  of  his  feats  of  strength. 
With  the  growth  of  this  mighty  frame  began  that 

5 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

strange  education  which  in  his  ripening  years 
was  to  qualify  him  for  the  great  destiny  that 
awaited  him,  and  the  development  of  those  mental 
faculties  and  moral  endowments,  which,  by  the 
time  he  reached  middle  life,  were  to  make  him  the 
sagacious,  patient  and  triumphant  leader  of  a 
great  nation  in  the  crisis  of  its  fate.  His  whole 
schooling,  obtained  during  such  odd  times  as 
could  be  spared  from  grinding  labor,  did  not 
amount  in  all  to  as  much  as  one  year,  and  the 
quality  of  the  teaching  was  of  the  lowest  possible 
grade,  including  only  the  elements  of  reading, 
writing  and  ciphering.  But  out  of  these  simple 
elements,  when  rightly  used  by  the  right  man, 
education  is  achieved;  and  Lincoln  knew  how  to 
use  them.  As  so  often  happens,  he  seemed  to 
take  warning  from  his  father's  unfortunate  ex 
ample.  Untiring  industry,  an  insatiable  thirst 
for  knowledge,  and  an  ever-growing  desire  to  rise 
above  his  surroundings,  were  early  manifesta 
tions  of  his  character. 

Books  were  almost  unknown  in  that  community, 
but  the  Bible  was  in  every  house,  and  somehow 
or  other  Pilgrim's  Progress,  ^Esop's  Fables,  a 
History  of  the  United  States,  and  a  Life  of  Wash 
ington  fell  into  his  hands.  He  trudged  on  foot 
many  miles  through  the  wilderness  to  borrow  an 
English  Grammar,  and  is  said  to  have  devoured 
greedily  the  contents  of  the  Statutes  of  Indiana 
that  fell  in  his  way.  These  few  volumes  he  read 
and  re-read  —  and  his  power  of  assimilation  was 
great.  To  be  shut  in  with  a  few  books  and 

6 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

to  master  them  thoroughly  sometimes  does  more 
for  the  development  of  mind  and  character,  than 
freedom  to  range  at  large,  in  a  cursory  and  indis 
criminate  way,  through  wide  domains  of  litera 
ture.  This  youth's  mind,  at  any  rate,  was  thor 
oughly  saturated  with  Biblical  knowledge  and 
Biblical  language,  which,  in  after  life,  he  used 
with  great  readiness  and  effect.  But  it  was  the 
constant  use  of  the  little  knowledge  which  he  had 
that  developed  and  exercised  his  mental  powers. 
After  the  hard  day's  work  was  done,  while  others 
slept,  he  toiled  on,  always  reading  or  writing. 
From  an  early  age  he  did  his  own  thinking  and 
made  up  his  own  mind  —  invaluable  traits  in  the 
future  President.  Paper  was  such  a  scarce  com 
modity  that,  by  the  evening  firelight,  he  would 
write  and  cipher  on  the  back  of  a  wooden  shovel, 
and  then  shave  it  off  to  make  room  for  more. 
By-and-by,  as  he  approached  manhood,  he  began 
speaking  in  the  rude  gatherings  of  the  neighbor 
hood,  and  so  laid  the  foundation  of  that  art  of 
persuading  his  fellow  men,  which  was  one  rich 
result  of  his  education,  and  one  great  secret  of 
his  subsequent  success. 

Accustomed  as  we  are  in  these  days  of  steam 
and  telegraphs  to  have  every  intelligent  boy  sur 
vey  the  whole  world  each  morning  before  break 
fast,  and  inform  himself  as  to  what  is  going  on 
in  every  nation,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive 
how  benighted  and  isolated  was  the  condition  of 
the  community  at  Pigeon  Creek  in  Indiana,  of 
which  the  family  of  Lincoln's  father  formed  a 

7 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

part,  or  how  eagerly  an  ambitious  and  high- 
spirited  boy,  such  as  he,  must  have  yearned  to 
escape.  The  first  glimpse  that  he  ever  got  of 
any  world  beyond  the  narrow  confines  of  his 
home  was  in  1828,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  when  a 
neighbor  employed  him  to  accompany  his  son 
down  the  river  to  New  Orleans  to  dispose  of  a 
flat  boat  of  produce  —  a  commission  which  he 
discharged  with  great  success. 

Shortly  after  his  return  from  this  first  ex 
cursion  into  the  outer  world,  his  father,  tired 
of  failure  in  Indiana,  packed  his  family  and 
all  his  worldly  goods  into  a  single  wagon  drawn 
by  two  yoke  of  oxen,  and  after  a  fourteen 
days'  tramp  through  the  wilderness,  pitched  his 
camp  once  more  in  Illinois.  Here  Abraham,  hav 
ing  come  of  age  and  being  now  his  own  master, 
rendered  the  last  service  of  his  minority  by 
ploughing  the  fifteen  acre  lot  and  splitting  from 
the  tall  walnut  trees  of  the  primeval  forest  enough 
rails  to  surround  the  little  clearing  with  a  fence. 
Such  was  the  meagre  outfit  of  this  coming  leader 
of  men,  at  the  age  when  the  future  British  Prime 
Minister  or  Statesman  emerges  from  the  Univer 
sity  as  a  double  first  or  senior  wrangler,  with 
every  advantage  that  high  training  and  broad  cul 
ture  and  association  with  the  wisest  and  the  best 
of  men  and  women  can  give,  and  enters  upon  some 
form  of  public  service  on  the  road  to  usefulness 
and  honor,  the  University  course  being  only  the 
first  stage  of  the  public  training.  So  Lincoln,  at 
twenty-one,  had  just  begun  his  preparation  for 

S 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  public  life  to  which  he  soon  began  to  aspire. 
For  some  years  yet  he  must  continue  to  earn  his 
daily  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  having  ab 
solutely  no  means,  no  home,  no  friend  to  consult. 
More  farm  work  as  a  hired  hand,  a  clerkship  in 
a  village  store,  the  running  of  a  mill,  another 
trip  to  New  Orleans  on  a  flat  boat  of  his  own  con 
triving,  a  pilot's  berth  on  the  river:  these  were 
the  means  by  which  he  subsisted  until,  in  the 
summer  of  1832,  when  he  was  twenty-three  years 
of  age,  an  event  occurred  which  gave  him  public 
recognition. 

The  Black  Hawk  War  broke  out,  and  the 
Governor  of  Illinois  calling  for  volunteers  to 
repel  the  band  of  savages  whose  leader  bore  that 
name,  Lincoln  enlisted  and  was  elected  captain 
by  his  comrades,  among  whom  he  had  already 
established  his  supremacy  by  signal  feats  of 
strength  and  more  than  one  successful  single 
combat.  During  the  brief  hostilities  he  was  en 
gaged  in  no  battle  and  won  no  military  glory,  but 
his  local  leadership  was  established.  The  same 
year  he  offered  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Legislature  of  Illinois,  but  failed  at  the  polls. 
Yet  his  vast  popularity  with  those  who  knew  him 
was  manifest.  The  District  consisted  of  several 
counties,  but  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  people 
of  his  own  county  was  for  Lincoln.  Another 
unsuccessful  attempt  at  store-keeping  was  fol 
lowed  by  better  luck  at  surveying,  until  his  horse 
and  instruments  were  levied  upon  under  execu 
tion  for  the  debts  of  his  business  adventure. 

9 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

I  have  been  thus  detailed  in  sketching  his  early 
years  because  upon  these  strange  foundations  the 
structure  of  his  great  fame  and  service  was  built. 
In  the  place  of  a  school  and  university  training 
fortune  substituted  these  trials,  hardships  and 
struggles  as  a  preparation  for  the  great  work 
which  he  had  to  do.  It  turned  out  to  be  exactly 
what  the  emergency  required.  Ten  years  instead 
at  the  public  school  and  the  University  certainly 
never  could  have  fitted  this  man  for  the  unique 
work  which  was  to  be  thrown  upon  him.  Some 
other  Moses  would  have  had  to  lead  us  to  our 
Jordan,  to  the  sight  of  our  promised  land  of 
liberty. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  became  a  member 
of  the  Legislature  of  Illinois,  and  so  continued 
for  eight  years,  and,  in  the  meantime,  qualified 
himself  by  reading  such  law  books  as  he  could 
borrow  at  random  —  for  he  was  too  poor  to  buy 
any  —  to  be  called  to  the  Bar.  For  his  second 
quarter  of  a  century  —  during  which  a  single 
term  in  Congress  introduced  him  into  the  arena 
of  national  questions  —  he  gave  himself  up  to 
law  and  politics.  In  spite  of  his  soaring  ambition, 
his  two  years  in  Congress  gave  him  no  premoni 
tion  of  the  great  destiny  that  awaited  him,  and 
at  its  close,  in  1849,  we  find  him  an  unsuccessful 
applicant  to  the  President  for  appointment  as 
Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office  —  a 
purely  administrative  Bureau;  a  fortunate  es 
cape  for  himself  and  for  his  country.  Year  by 
year  his  knowledge  and  power,  his  experience  and 

10 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

reputation  extended,  and  his  mental  faculties 
seemed  to  grow  by  what  they  fed  on.  His  power 
of  persuasion,  which  had  always  been  marked, 
was  developed  to  an  extraordinary  degree,  now 
that  he  became  engaged  in  congenial  questions 
and  subjects.  Little  by  little  he  rose  to  promi 
nence  at  the  Bar,  and  became  the  most  effective 
public  speaker  in  the  West.  Not  that  he  possessed 
any  of  the  graces  of  the  orator ;  but  his  logic  was 
invincible,  and  his  clearness  and  force  of  state 
ment  impressed  upon  his  hearers  the  convictions 
of  his  honest  mind,  while  his  broad  sympathies 
and  sparkling  and  genial  humor  made  him  a 
universal  favorite  as  far  and  as  fast  as  his 
acquaintance  extended. 

These  twenty  years  that  elapsed  from  the  time 
of  his  establishment  as  a  lawyer  and  legislator 
in  Springfield,  the  new  capital  of  Illinois,  fur 
nished  a  fitting  theatre  for  the  development  and 
display  of  his  great  faculties,  and,  with  his  new 
and  enlarged  opportunities,  he  obviously  grew  in 
mental  stature  in  this  second  period  of  his  career, 
as  if  to  compensate  for  the  absolute  lack  of  ad 
vantages  under  which  he  had  suffered  in  youth. 
As  his  powers  enlarged,  his  reputation  extended, 
for  he  was  always  before  the  people,  felt  a  warm 
sympathy  with  all  that  concerned  them,  took  a 
zealous  part  in  the  discussion  of  every  public 
question,  and  made  his  personal  influence  ever 
more  widely  and  deeply  felt. 

My  brethren  of  the  legal  profession  will  natu 
rally  ask  me,  how  could  this  rough  backwoodsman, 

11 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 

whose  youth  had  been  spent  in  the  forest  or  on 
the  farm  and  the  flat  boat,  without  culture  or 
training,  education  or  study,  by  the  random  read 
ing,  on  the  wing,  of  a  few  miscellaneous  law  books, 
become  a  learned  and  accomplished  lawyer  1  Well, 
he  never  did.  He  never  would  have  earned  his 
salt  as  a  Writer  for  the  Signet,  nor  have  won 
a  place  as  advocate  in  the  Court  of  Session,  where 
the  technique  of  the  profession  has  reached  its 
highest  perfection,  and  centuries  of  learning  and 
precedent  are  involved  in  the  equipment  of  a 
lawyer.  Dr.  Holmes,  when  asked  by  an  anxious 
young  mother,  "  When  should  the  education  of 
a  child  begin?  "  replied,  li  Madam,  at  least  two 
centuries  before  it  is  born!  "  and  so  I  am  sure 
it  is  with  the  Scots  lawyer. 

But  not  so  in  Illinois  in  1840.  Between  1830 
and  1880,  its  population  increased  twenty-fold, 
and  when  Lincoln  began  practising  law  in  Spring 
field  in  1837,  life  in  Illinois  was  very  crude  and 
simple,  and  so  were  the  Courts  and  the  admin 
istration  of  justice.  Books  and  libraries  were 
scarce.  But  the  people  loved  justice,  upheld  the 
law  and  followed  the  Courts,  and  soon  found  their 
favorites  among  the  advocates.  The  fundamental 
principles  of  the  Common  Law,  as  set  forth  by 
Blackstone  and  Chitty,  were  not  so  difficult  to 
acquire ;  and  brains,  common  sense,  force  of  char 
acter,  tenacity  of  purpose,  ready  wit  and  power 
of  speech  did  the  rest,  and  supplied  all  the  defi 
ciencies  of  learning. 

The  lawsuits  of  those  days  were  extremely 

12 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

simple,  and  the  principles  of  natural  justice  were 
mainly  relied  on  to  dispose  of  them  at  the  Bar 
and  on  the  Bench,  without  resort  to  technical 
learning.  Railroads,  corporations  absorbing  the 
chief  business  of  the  community;  combined  and 
inherited  wealth,  with  all  the  subtle  and  intricate 
questions  they  breed,  had  not  yet  come  in  —  and 
so  the  professional  agents  and  the  equipment 
which  they  require  were  not  needed.  But  there 
were  many  highly  educated  and  powerful  men  at 
the  Bar  of  Illinois,  even  in  those  early  days,  whom 
the  spirit  of  enterprise  had  carried  there  in 
search  of  fame  and  fortune.  It  was  by  constant 
contact  and  conflict  with  these  that  Lincoln  ac 
quired  professional  strength  and  skill.  Every 
community  and  every  age  creates  its  own  Bar, 
entirely  adequate  for  its  present  uses  and  neces 
sities.  So  in  Illinois,  as  the  population  and  wealth 
of  the  State  kept  on  doubling  and  quadrupling,  its 
Bar  presented  a  growing  abundance  of  learning 
and  science  and  technical  skill.  The  early  practi 
tioners  grew  with  its  growth  and  mastered  the 
requisite  knowledge.  Chicago  soon  grew  to  be 
one  of  the  largest  and  richest  and  certainly  the 
most  intensely  active  city  on  the  Continent,  and 
if  any  of  my  professional  friends  here  had  gone 
there  in  Lincoln's  later  years,  to  try  or  argue  a 
cause,  or  transact  other  business,  with  any  idea 
that  Edinburgh  or  London  had  a  monopoly  of 
legal  learning,  science  or  subtlety,  they  would 
certainly  have  found  their  mistake. 
In  those  early  days  in  the  West,  every  lawyer, 

13 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

especially  every  Court  lawyer,  was  necessarily  a 
politician,  constantly  engaged  in  the  public  dis 
cussion  of  the  many  questions  evolved  from  the 
rapid  development  of  town,  county,  State  and 
Federal  affairs.  Then  and  there,  in  this  regard, 
public  discussion  supplied  the  place  which  the 
universal  activity  of  the  Press  has  since  monopo 
lized,  and  the  public  speaker  who,  by  clearness, 
force,  earnestness  and  wit,  could  make  himself 
felt  on  the  questions  of  the  day,  would  rapidly 
come  to  the  front.  In  the  absence  of  that  im 
mense  variety  of  popular  entertainments  which 
now  feed  the  public  taste  and  appetite,  the  people 
found  their  chief  amusement  in  frequenting  the 
Courts  and  public  and  political  assemblies.  In 
either  place,  he  who  impressed,  entertained  and 
amused  them  most  was  the  hero  of  the  hour. 
They  did  not  discriminate  very  carefully  between 
the  eloquence  of  the  forum  and  the  eloquence  of 
the  hustings.  Human  nature  ruled  in  both  alike, 
a-nd  he  who  was  the  most  effective  speaker  in  a 
political  harangue  was  often  retained  as  most 
likely  to  win  in  a  cause  to  be  tried  or  argued. 
And  I  have  no  doubt  in  this  way  many  retainers 
came  to  Lincoln.  Fees,  money  in  any  form,  had 
no  charms  for  him  —  in  his  eager  pursuit  of 
fame,  he  could  not  afford  to  make  money.  He 
was  ambitious  to  distinguish  himself  by  some 
great  service  to  mankind,  and  this  ambition  for 
fame  and  real  public  service  left  no  room  for  ava 
rice  in  his  composition.  However  much  he  earned, 
he  seems  to  have  ended  every  year  hardly  richer 

14 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

than  he  began  it,  and  yet  as  the  years  passed, 
fees  came  to  him  freely.  One  of  £1,000  is  re 
corded  —  a  very  large  professional  fee  at  that 
time,  even  in  any  part  of  America,  the  paradise 
of  lawyers.  I  lay  great  stress  on  Lincoln's  career 
as  a  lawyer  —  much  more  than  his  biographers 
do  —  because  in  America  a  state  of  things  exists 
wholly  different  from  that  which  prevails  in 
Great  Britain.  The  profession  of  the  law  always 
has  been  —  and  is  to  this  day  —  the  principal 
avenue  to  public  life;  and  I  am  sure  that  his 
training  and  experience  in  the  Courts  had  much 
to  do  with  the  development  of  those  forces  of 
intellect  and  character  which  he  soon  displayed 
on  a  broader  arena. 

It  was  in  political  controversy,  of  course,  that 
he  acquired  his  wide  reputation,  and  made  his 
deep  and  lasting  impression  upon  the  people  of 
what  had  now  become  the  powerful  State  of  Illi 
nois,  and  upon  the  people  of  the  Great  West,  to 
whom  the  political  power  and  control  of  the 
United  States  were  already  surely  and  swiftly 
passing  from  the  older  Eastern  States.  It  was 
this  reputation  and  this  impression  and  the 
familiar  knowledge  of  his  character  which  had 
come  to  them  from  his  local  leadership,  that  hap 
pily  inspired  the  people  of  the  West  to  present 
him  as  their  candidate,  and  to  press  him  upon  the 
Republican  Convention  of  1860,  as  the  fit  and 
necessary  leader  in  the  struggle  for  life  which 
was  before  the  Nation. 

That  struggle,  as  you  all  know,  arose  out  of 

15 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  terrible  question  of  Slavery  —  and  I  must 
trust  to  your  general  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
that  question  to  make  intelligible  the  attitude 
and  leadership  of  Lincoln  as  the  champion  of  the 
hosts  of  freedom  in  the  final  contest.  Negro 
slavery  had  been  firmly  established  in  the  South 
ern  States  from  an  early  period  of  their  history. 
In  1619,  the  year  before  the  ' '  Mayflower  ' '  landed 
our  Pilgrim  Fathers  upon  Plymouth  Rock,  a 
Dutch  ship  had  discharged  a  cargo  of  African 
slaves  at  Jamestown  in  Virginia.  All  through  the 
colonial  period  their  importation  had  continued. 
A  few  had  found  their  way  into  the  Northern 
States,  but  in  none  of  them  in  sufficient  numbers 
to  constitute  danger  or  to  afford  a  basis  for  polit 
ical  power.  At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
principal  members  of  the  Convention  not  only 
condemned  slavery  as  a  moral,  social  and  polit 
ical  evil  —  but  believed  that  by  the  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade  it  was  in  the  course  of  gradual 
extinction  in  the  South,  as  it  certainly  was  in  the 
North.  Washington,  in  his  will,  provided  for  the 
emancipation  of  his  own  slaves,  and  said  to  Jeffer 
son  that  it  "  was  among  his  first  wishes  to  see 
some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery  in  his  country 
might  be  abolished. "  Jefferson  said,  referring  to 
the  institution,  "  I  tremble  for  my  country  when 
I  think  that  God  is  just;  that  His  justice  cannot 
sleep  for  ever  "  —  and  Franklin,  Adams,  Hamil 
ton  and  Patrick  Henry  were  all  utterly  opposed  to 
it.  But  it  was  made  the  subject  of  a  fatal  com- 

16 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

promise  in  the  Federal  Constitution,  whereby  its 
existence  was  recognized  in  the  States  as  a  basis 
of  representation,  the  prohibition  of  the  importa 
tion  of  slaves  was  postponed  for  twenty  years, 
and  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves  provided  for. 
But  no  imminent  danger  was  apprehended  from 
it  till,  by  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  in  1792, 
cotton  culture  by  negro  labor  became  at  once  and 
for  ever  the  leading  industry  of  the  South,  and 
gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  importation  of  slaves, 
so  that  in  1808,  when  the  constitutional  prohibi 
tion  took  effect,  their  numbers  had  vastly  in 
creased.  From  that  time  forward,  slavery  became 
the  basis  of  a  great  political  power,  and  the 
Southern  States,  under  all  circumstances  and  at 
every  opportunity,  carried  on  a  brave  and  unre 
lenting  struggle  for  its  maintenance  and  exten 
sion. 

The  conscience  of  the  North  was  slow  to  rise 
against  it,  though  bitter  controversies  from  time 
to  time  took  place.  The  Southern  leaders  threat 
ened  disunion  if  their  demands  were  not  complied 
with.  To  save  the  Union,  compromise  after  com 
promise  was  made;  but  each  one  in  the  end  was 
broken.  The  Missouri  Compromise,  made  in 
1820  upon  the  occasion  of  the  admission  of 
Missouri  into  the  Union  as  a  Slave  State  — 
whereby,  in  consideration  of  such  admission, 
slavery  was  for  ever  excluded  from  the  North 
west  Territory  —  was  ruthlessly  repealed  in  1854, 
by  a  Congress  elected  in  the  interests  of  the  slave 
power,  the  intent  being  to  force  slavery  into  that 

17 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

vast  territory  which  had  so  long  been  dedicated 
to  freedom.  This  challenge  at  last  aroused  the 
slumbering  conscience  and  passion  of  the  North, 
and  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Republican  party 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  preventing,  by  consti 
tutional  methods,  the  further  extension  of  slavery. 
In  its  first  campaign  in  1856,  though  it  failed 
to  elect  its  candidates,  it  received  a  surprising 
vote  and  carried  many  of  the  States.  No  one 
could  any  longer  doubt  that  the  North  had  made 
up  its  mind  that  no  threats  of  disunion  should 
deter  it  from  pressing  its  cherished  purpose  and 
performing  its  long  neglected  duty.  From  the 
outset,  Lincoln  was  one  of  the  most  active  and 
effective  leaders  and  speakers  of  the  new  party, 
and  the  great  debates  between  Lincoln  and  Doug 
las  in  1858,  as  the  respective  champions  of  the 
restriction  and  extension  of  slavery,  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  whole  country.  Lincoln's  power 
ful  arguments  carried  conviction  everywhere.  His 
moral  nature  was  thoroughly  aroused  —  his  con 
science  was  stirred  to  the  quick.  Unless  slavery 
was  wrong,  nothing  was  wrong.  Was  each  man, 
of  whatever  color,  entitled  to  the  fruits  of  his 
own  labor,  or  could  one  man  live  in  idle  luxury 
by  the  sweat  of  another's  brow,  whose  skin  was 
darker !  He  was  an  implicit  believer  in  that  prin 
ciple  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  that  all 
men  are  vested  with  certain  inalienable  rights  - 
the  equal  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  On  this  doctrine,  he  staked  his  case 
and  carried  it.  "We  have  time  only  for  one  or 

18 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

two  sentences  in  which  he  struck  the  keynote  of 
the  contest :  — 

* '  The  real  issue  in  this  country  is  the  eternal  struggle 
between  these  two  principles  —  right  and  wrong  — 
throughout  the  world.  They  are  the  two  principles  that 
have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  beginning  of  time,  and 
will  ever  continue  to  struggle.  The  one  is  the  common 
right  of  humanity,  and  the  other  the  divine  right  of 
kings.  It  is  the  same  principle  in  whatever  shape  it 
develops  itself.  It  is  the  same  spirit  that  says,  '  You 
work  and  toil  and  earn  bread  and  I'll  eat  it.'  ' 

He  foresaw  with  unerring  vision  that  the  con 
flict  was  inevitable  and  irrepressible  —  that  one 
or  the  other,  the  right  or  the  wrong,  freedom  or 
slavery,  must  ultimately  prevail,  and  wholly  pre 
vail,  throughout  the  country;  and  this  was  the 
principle  that  carried  the  war,  once  begun,  to 
a  finish. 

One  sentence  of  his  is  immortal  — 

"  Under  the  operation  of  the  policy  of  compromise, 
the  slavery  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has 
constantly  augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease 
until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  '  A 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.'  I  believe 
this  Government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dis 
solved.  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall  —  but  I  do 
expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one 
thing  or  all  the  other  —  either  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where 
the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the 

19 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 

course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the 
States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 

During  the  entire  decade,  from  1850  to  1860, 
the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  was  at  the 
boiling  point,  and  events  which  have  become  his 
torical  continually  indicated  the  near  approach 
of  the  overwhelming  storm.  No  sooner  had  the 
Compromise  Acts  of  1850  resulted  in  a  temporary 
peace,  which  everybody  said  must  be  final  and 
perpetual,  than  new  outbreaks  came.  The  forcible 
carrying  away  of  fugitive  slaves  by  Federal 
Troops  from  Boston  agitated  that  ancient  strong 
hold  of  freedom  to  its  foundations.  The  publica 
tion  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  which  truly  ex 
posed  the  frightful  possibilities  of  the  slave  sys 
tem  ;  the  reckless  attempts  by  force  and  fraud  to 
establish  it  in  Kansas  against  the  will  of  the  vast 
majority  of  the  settlers;  the  beating  of  Sumner 
in  the  Senate  Chamber  for  words  spoken  in  de 
bate;  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  the  Supreme 
Court,  which  made  the  nation  realize  that  the 
slave  power  had  at  last  reached  the  fountain  of 
Federal  justice;  and  finally  the  execution  of 
John  Brown,  for  his  wild  raid  into  Virginia,  to 
invite  the  slaves  to  rally  to  the  standard  of  free 
dom  which  he  unfurled :  all  these  events  tend  to 
illustrate  and  confirm  Lincoln's  contention  that 
the  nation  could  not  permanently  continue  half 
slave  and  half  free,  but  must  become  all  one  thing 
or  all  the  other.  When  John  Brown  lay  under 

20 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

sentence  of  death,  he  declared  that  now  he  was 
sure  that  slavery  must  be  wiped  out  in  blood ;  but 
neither  he  nor  his  executioners  dreamt  that 
within  four  years  a  million  soldiers  would  be 
marching  across  the  country  for  its  final  extirpa 
tion,  to  the  music  of  the  war-song  of  the  great 
conflict :  — 

"  John  Brown's  body  lies  a-mouldering  in  the  grave, 
But  his  soul  is  marching  on. ' ' 

And  now,  at  the  age  of  fifty-one,  this  child  of 
the  wilderness,  this  farm  laborer,  rail-splitter, 
flat-boatman  —  this  surveyor,  lawyer,  orator, 
statesman  and  patriot  found  himself  elected  by 
the  great  party  which  was  pledged  to  prevent  at 
all  hazards  the  further  extension  of  slavery,  as 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  Republic,  bound  to 
carry  out  that  purpose,  to  be  the  leader  and  ruler 
of  the  nation  in  its  most  trying  hour. 

Those  who  believe"  that  there  is  a  living  Provi 
dence  that  over-rules  and  conducts  the  affairs  of 
nations,  find  in.  the  elevation  of  this  plain  man  to 
this  extraordinary  fortune  and  to  this  great  duty 
which  he  so  fitly  discharged,  a  signal  vindication 
of  their  faith.  Perhaps  to  this  Philosophical 
Institution  the  judgment  of  our  philosopher 
Emerson  will  commend  itself  as  a  just  estimate 
of  Lincoln's  historical  place  :- 

11  His  occupying  the  Chair  of  State  was  a  triumph  of 
the  good  sense  of  mankind  and  of  the  public  conscience. 
He  grew  according  to  the  need;  his  mind  mastered  the 

21 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

problem  of  the  day :  and  as  the  problem  grew,  so  did  his 
comprehension  of  it.  In  the  war  there  was  no  place  for 
holiday  magistrate,  nor  fair  weather  sailor.  The  new 
pilot  was  hurried  to  the  helm  in  a  tornado.  In  four 
years  —  four  years  of  battle  days  —  his  endurance,  his 
fertility  of  resource,  his  magnanimity,  were  sorely  tried, 
and  never  found  wanting.  There,  by  his  courage,  his 
justice,  his  even  temper,  his  fertile  counsel,  his  human 
ity,  he  stood  a  heroic  figure  in  the  centre  of  a  heroic 
epoch.  He  is  the  true  history  of  the  American  people  in 
his  time,  the  true  representative  of  this  continent  — 
father  of  his  country,  the  pulse  of  twenty  millions  throb 
bing  in  his  heart,  the  thought  of  their  mind  articulated 
in  his  tongue/' 

He  was  born  great,  as  distinguished  from  those 
who  achieve  greatness  or  have  it  thrust  upon 
them,  and  his  inherent  capacity,  mental,  moral, 
and  physical,  having  been  recognized  by  the  edu 
cated  intelligence  of  a  free  people,  they  happily 
chose  him  for  their  ruler  in  a  day  of  deadly  peril. 

It  is  now  forty  years  since  I  first  saw  and 
heard  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  the  impression  which 
he  left  on  my  mind  is  ineffaceable.  After  his 
great  successes  in  the  West  he  came  to  New  York 
to  make  a  political  address.  He  appeared  in  every 
sense  of  the  word  like  one  of  the  plain  people 
among  whom  he  loved  to  be  counted.  At  first 
sight  there  was  nothing  impressive  or  imposing 
about  him  —  except  that  his  great  stature  singled 
him  out  from  the  crowd;  his  clothes  hung  awk 
wardly  on  his  giant  frame,  his  face  was  of  a 
dark  pallor,  without  the  slightest  tinge  of  color; 

22 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

his  seamed  and  rugged  features  bore  the  furrows 
of  hardship  and  struggle;  his  deep-set  eyes 
looked  sad  and  anxious;  his  countenance  in  re 
pose  gave  little  evidence  of  that  brain  power 
which  had  raised  him  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  station  among  his  countrymen;  as  he 
talked  to  me  before  the  meeting,  he  seemed  ill 
at  ease,  with  that  sort  of  apprehension  which 
a  young  man  might  feel  before  presenting  him 
self  to  a  new  and  strange  audience,  whose  critical 
disposition  he  dreaded.  It  was  a  great  audience, 
including  all  the  noted  men  —  all  the  learned  and 
cultured  —  of  his  party  in  New  York :  editors, 
clergymen,  statesmen,  lawyers,  merchants,  critics. 
They  were  all  very  curious  to  hear  him.  His 
fame  as  a  powerful  speaker  had  preceded  him, 
and  exaggerated  rumor  of  his  wit  —  the  worst 
forerunner  of  an  orator  —  had  reached  the  East. 
When  Mr.  Bryant  presented  him,  on  the  high 
platform  of  the  Cooper  Institute,  a  vast  sea  of 
eager  upturned  faces  greeted  him,  full  of  intense 
curiosity  to  see  what  this  rude  child  of  the  people 
was  like.  He  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  When 
he  spoke  he  was  transformed;  his  eye  kindled, 
his  voice  rang,  his  face  shone  and  seemed  to  light 
up  the  whole  assembly.  For  an  hour  and  a  half 
he  held  his  audience  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand. 
His  style  of  speech  and  manner  of  delivery  were 
severely  simple.  What  Lowell  called  "  The 
grand  simplicities  of  the  Bible,"  with  which  he 
was  so  familiar,  were  reflected  in  his  discourse. 
With  no  attempt  at  ornament  or  rhetoric,  without 

23 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

parade  or  pretence,  he  spoke  straight  to  the  point. 
If  any  came  expecting  the  turgid  eloquence  or  the 
ribaldry  of  the  frontier,  they  must  have  been 
startled  at  the  earnest  and  sincere  purity  of  his 
utterances.  It  was  marvellous  to  see  how  this 
untutored  man,  by  mere  self  discipline  and 
the  chastening  of  his  own  spirit,  had  outgrown 
all  meretricious  arts,  and  found  his  own  way 
to  the  grandeur  and  strength  of  absolute  sim 
plicity. 

He  spoke  upon  the  theme  which  he  had  mas 
tered  so  thoroughly.  He  demonstrated  by  copi 
ous  historical  proofs  and  masterly  logic,  that  the 
Fathers  who  created  the  Constitution  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  union,  to  establish  justice, 
and  to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves 
and  their  posterity,  intended  to  empower  the 
Federal  Government  to  exclude  slavery  from  the 
territories.  In  the  kindliest  spirit,  he  protested 
against  the  avowed  threat  of  the  Southern  States 
to  destroy  the  Union  if,  in  order  to  secure  free 
dom  in  those  vast  regions,  out  of  which  future 
States  were  to  be  carved,  a  Republican  President 
were  elected.  He  closed  with  an  appeal  to  his 
audience,  spoken  with  all  the  fire  of  his  aroused 
and  kindling  conscience,  with  a  full  outpouring 
of  his  love  of  justice  and  liberty,  to  maintain  their 
political  purpose  on  that  lofty  and  unassailable 
issue  of  right  and  wrong  which  alone  could  jus 
tify  it,  and  not  to  be  intimidated  from  their  high 
resolve  and  sacred  duty  by  any  threats  of  destruc 
tion  to  the  Government  or  of  ruin  to  themselves. 

24 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

He  concluded  with  this  telling  sentence,  which 
drove  the  whole  argument  home  to  all  our  hearts : 
"  Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might,  and 
in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  dare  to  do  our  duty 
as  we  understand  it."  That  night  the  great  hall, 
and  the  next  day  the  whole  city,  rang  with  de 
lighted  applause  and  congratulations,  and  he  who 
had  come  as  a  stranger  departed  with  the  laurels 
of  a  great  triumph. 

Alas !  in  five  years  from  that  exulting  night,  I 
saw  him  again,  for  the  last  time,  in  the  same  city, 
borne  in  his  coffin  through  its  draped  streets. 
With  tears  and  lamentations  a  heart-broken  peo 
ple  accompanied  him  from  Washington,  the  scene 
of  his  martyrdom,  to  his  last  resting  place  in  the 
young  city  of  the  West,  where  he  had  worked  his 
way  to  fame. 

Never  was  a  new  ruler  in  a  more  desperate 
plight  than  Lincoln  when  he  entered  office  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1861,  four  months  after  his  election, 
and  took  his  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union.  The  intervening  time  had  been  busily 
employed  by  the  Southern  States  in  carrying  out 
their  threat  of  disunion  in  the  event  of  his  elec 
tion.  As  soon  as  that  fact  was  ascertained,  seven 
of  them  had  seceded  and  had  seized  upon  the  forts, 
arsenals,  navy  yards  and  other  public  property  of 
the  United  States  within  their  boundaries,  and 
were  making  every  preparation  for  war.  In  the 
meantime  the  retiring  President,  who  had  been 
elected  by  the  slave  power,  and  who  thought  the 
seceding  States  could  not  lawfully  be  coerced,  had 

25 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

done  absolutely  nothing.  Lincoln  found  himself, 
by  the  Constitution,  Commander-in- Chief  of  the 
Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  but  with 
only  a  remnant  of  either  at  hand.  Each  was  to 
be  created  on  a  great  scale  out  of  the  unknown 
resources  of  a  nation  untried  in  war. 

In  his  mild  and  conciliatory  inaugural  address, 
while  appealing  to  the  seceding  States  to  return 
to  their  allegiance,  he  avowed  his  purpose  to  keep 
the  solemn  oath  he  had  taken  that  day,  to  see  that 
the  laws  of  the  Union  were  faithfully  executed, 
and  to  use  the  troops  to  recover  the  forts,  navy 
yards,  and  other  property  belonging  to  the  Gov 
ernment.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  neither 
side  actually  realized  that  war  was  inevitable,  and 
that  the  other  was  determined  to  fight,  until  the 
assault  on  Fort  Sumter  presented  the  South  as 
the  first  aggressor  and  roused  the  North  to  use 
every  possible  resource  to  maintain  the  Govern 
ment  and  the  imperilled  Union,  and  to  vindicate 
the  supremacy  of  the  flag  over  every  inch  of  the 
territory  of  the  United  States.  The  fact  that  Lin 
coln's  first  Proclamation  called  for  only  75,000 
troops,  to  serve  for  three  months,  shows  how  in 
adequate  was  even  his  idea  of  what  the  future  had 
in  store.  But  from  that  moment  Lincoln  and  his 
loyal  supporters  never  faltered  in  their  purpose. 
They  knew  they  could  win,  that  it  was  their  duty 
to  win,  and  that  for  America  the  whole  hope  of 
the  future  depended  upon  their  winning,  for  now 
by  the  acts  of  the  seceding  States  the  issue  of  the 
Election  —  to  secure  or  prevent  the  extension  of 

26 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

slavery  —  stood  transformed  into  a  struggle  to 
preserve  or  to  destroy  the  Union. 

We  cannot  follow  this  contest.  You  know  its 
gigantic  proportions ;  that  it  lasted  four  years 
instead  of  three  months;  that  in  its  progress 
instead  of  75,000  men,  more  than  2,000,000  were 
enrolled  on  the  side  of  the  Government  alone;  that 
the  aggregate  cost  and  loss  to  the  nation  approx 
imated  to  2,000,000,000  pounds  sterling,  and  that 
not  less  than  300,000  brave  and  precious  lives  were 
sacrificed  on  each  side.  History  has  recorded  how 
Lincoln  bore  himself  during  these  four  frightful 
years ;  that  he  was  the  real  President,  the  re 
sponsible  and  actual  head  of  the  Government 
through  it  all ;  that  he  listened  to  all  advice,  heard 
all  parties,  and  then,  always  realizing  his  respon 
sibility  to  God  and  the  nation,  decided  every  great 
executive  question  for  himself.  His  absolute  hon 
esty  had  become  proverbial  long  before  he  was 
President.  "  Honest  Abe  Lincoln  "  was  the  name 
by  which  he  had  been  known  for  years.  His  every 
act  attested  it. 

In  all  the  grandeur  of  the  vast  power  that  he 
wielded,  he  never  ceased  to  be  one  of  the  plain 
people,  as  he  always  called  them,  never  lost  or 
impaired  his  perfect  sympathy  with  them,  was 
always  in  perfect  touch  with  them  and  open  to 
their  appeals ;  and  here  lay  the  very  secret  of  his 
personality  and  of  his  power,  for  the  people  in 
turn  gave  him  their  absolute  confidence.  His  cour 
age,  his  fortitude,  his  patience,  his  hopefulness, 
were  sorely  tried  but  never  exhausted. 

27 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

He  was  true  as  steel  to  his  Generals,  but  had 
frequent  occasion  to  change  them,  as  he  found 
them  inadequate.  This  serious  and  painful  duty 
rested  wholly  on  him,  and  was  perhaps  his  most 
important  function  as  Commander-in-Chief ;  but 
when,  at  last,  he  recognized  in  General  Grant  the 
master  of  the  situation,  the  man  who  could  and 
would  bring  the  war  to  a  triumphant  end,  he  gave 
it  all  over  to  him,  and  upheld  him  with  all  his 
might.  Amid  all  the  pressure  and  distress  that 
the  burdens  of  office  brought  upon  him,  his  unfail 
ing  sense  of  humor  saved  him  —  probably  it  made 
it  possible  for  him  to  live  under  the  burden.  He 
had  always  been  the  great  story-teller  of  the  West, 
and  he  used  and  cultivated  this  faculty  to  relieve 
the  weight  of  the  load  he  bore. 

It  enabled  him  to  keep  the  wonderful  record  of 
never  having  lost  his  temper,  no  matter  what 
agony  he  had  to  bear.  A  whole  night  might  be 
spent  in  recounting  the  stories  of  his  wit,  humor, 
and  harmless  sarcasm.  But  I  will  recall  only  two 
of  his  sayings,  both  about  General  Grant,  who' 
always  found  plenty  of  enemies  and  critics  to  urge 
the  President  to  oust  him  from  his  command. 
One,  I  am  sure,  will  interest  all  Scotchmen.  They 
repeated  with  malicious  intent  the  gossip  that 
Grant  drank.  "  What  does  he  drink?  "  asked 
Lincoln.  "  Whiskey  "  was,  of  course,  the  an 
swer;  doubtless  you  can  guess  the  brand. 
"  Well,"  said  the  President,  "  just  find  out  what 
particular  kind  he  uses  and  I'll  send  a  barrel  to 
each  of  my  other  Generals. "  The  other  must  be 

28 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 

as  pleasing  to  the  British  as  to  the  American  ear. 
When  pressed  again  on  other  grounds  to  get  rid 
of  Grant,  he  declared,  "  I  can't  spare  that  man, 
he  fights!  " 

He  was  tender-hearted  to  a  fault,  and  never 
could  resist  the  appeals  of  wives  and  mothers  of 
soldiers  who  had  got  into  trouble  and  were  under 
sentence  of  death  for  their  offences.  His  Secre 
tary  of  War  and  other  officials  complained  that 
they  never  could  get  deserters  shot.  As  surely 
as  the  women  of  the  culprit's  family  could  get  at 
him,  he  always  gave  way.  Certainly  you  will  all 
appreciate  his  exquisite  sympathy  with  the  suffer 
ing  relatives  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  battle. 
His  heart  bled  with  theirs.  Never  was  there  a 
more  gentle  and  tender  utterance  than  his  letter, 
to  a  mother  who  had  given  all  her  sons  to  her 
country,  written  at  a  time  when  the  angel  of  death 
had  visited  almost  every  household  in  the  land, 
and  was  already  hovering  over  him. 

"  I  have  been  shown,"  he  says,  "  in  the  files 
of  the  War  Department  a  statement  that  you  are 
the  mother  of  five  sons  who  have  died  gloriously 
on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and  fruit 
less  must  be  any  words  of  mine  which  should  at 
tempt  to  beguile  you  from  your  grief  for  a  loss 
so  overwhelming  —  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  ten 
dering  to  you  the  consolation  which  may  be  found 
in  the  thanks  of  the  Eepublic  they  died  to  save. 
I  pray  that  our  Heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the 
anguish  of  your  bereavement  and  leave  you  only 
the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and  the  lost, 

29 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 

and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have 
laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  free 
dom.  " 

Hardly  could  your  illustrious  Sovereign, 
from  the  depths  of  her  queenly  and  womanly 
heart,  have  spoken  words  more  touching  and 
tender  to  soothe  the  stricken  mothers  of  her  own 
soldiers. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  with  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  delighted  the  country  and  the  world 
on  the  first  of  January,  1863,  will  doubtless  secure 
for  him  a  foremost  place  in  history  among  the 
philanthropists  and  benefactors  of  the  race,  as  it 
rescued,  from  hopeless  and  degrading  slavery, 
so  many  millions  of  his  fellow  beings  described 
in  the  law  and  existing  in  fact  as  "  chattels-per 
sonal,  in  the  hands  of  their  owners  and  posses 
sors,  to  all  intents,  constructions  and  purposes 
whatsoever. "  Barely  does  the  happy  fortune 
come  to  one  man  to  render  such  a  service  to  his 
kind  —  to  proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land 
unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof. 

Ideas  rule  the  world,  and  never  was  there  a 
more  signal  instance  of  this  triumph  of  an  idea 
than  here.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who  thirty 
years  before  had  begun  his  crusade  for  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery,  and  had  lived  to  see  this  glorious 
and  unexpected  consummation  of  the  hopeless 
cause  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life,  well  de 
scribed  the  Proclamation  as  a  "  great  historic 
event,  sublime  in  its  magnitude,  momentous  and 
beneficent  in  its  far-reaching  consequences,  and 

30 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

eminently  just  and  right  alike  to  the  oppressor 
and  the  oppressed." 

Lincoln  had  been  always  heart  and  soul  opposed 
to  slavery.  Tradition  says  that  on  the  trip  on  the 
flat  boat  to  New  Orleans,  he  formed  his  first  and 
last  opinion  of  slavery  at  the  sight  of  negroes 
chained  and  scourged,  and  that  then  and  there  the 
iron  entered  into  his  soul.  No  boy  could  grow  to 
manhood  in  those  days  as  a  poor  white  in  Ken 
tucky  and  Indiana,  in  close  contact  with  slavery 
or  in  its  neighborhood,  without  a  growing  con 
sciousness  of  its  blighting  effects  on  free  labor, 
as  well  of  its  frightful  injustice  and  cruelty.  In 
the  Legislature  of  Illinois,  where  the  public  senti 
ment  was  all  for  upholding  the  institution  and 
violently  against  every  movement  for  its  abolition 
or  restriction,  upon  the  passage  of  resolutions  to 
that  effect,  he  had  the  courage  with  one  compan 
ion  to  put  on  record  his  protest,  "  believing  that 
the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  both  in  injus 
tice  and  bad  policy. ' '  No  great  demonstration  of 
courage,  you  will  say ;  but  that  was  at  a  time  when 
Garrison,  for  his  abolition  utterances,  had  been 
dragged  by  an  angry  mob  through  the  streets  of 
Boston  with  a  rope  around  his  body,  and  in  the 
very  year  that  Love  joy  in  the  same  State  of  Illi 
nois  was  slain  by  rioters  while  defending  his  press, 
from  which  he  had  printed  anti-slavery  appeals. 

In  Congress,  he  brought  in  a  Bill  for  gradual 
abolition  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  with  com 
pensation  to  the  owners  —  for  until  they  raised 
treasonable  hands  against  the  life  of  the  nation, 

31 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

he  always  maintained  that  the  property  of  the 
slave-holders,  into  which  they  had  come  by  two 
centuries  of  descent,  without  fault  on  their  part, 
ought  not  to  be  taken  away  from  them  without  just 
compensation.  He  used  to  say  that,  one  way  or 
another,  he  had  voted  forty-two  times  for  the 
Wilmot  proviso,  which  Mr.  Wilmot  of  Pennsyl 
vania  moved  as  an  addition  to  every  Bill  which 
affected  United  States  territory  — ' '  That  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall  ever  exist 
in  any  part  of  the  said  territory, ' '  —  and  it  is  evi 
dent  that  his  condemnation  of  the  system,  on 
moral  grounds  as  a  crime  against  the  human  race, 
and  on  political  grounds  as  a  cancer  that  was  sap 
ping  the  vitals  of  the  nation,  and  must  master  its 
whole  being  or  be  itself  extirpated,  grew  steadily 
upon  him. until  it  culminated  in  his  great  speeches 
in  the  Illinois  debate. 

By  the  mere  election  of  Lincoln  to  the  Presi 
dency,  the  further  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
territories  was  rendered  for  ever  impossible  — 
Vox  populi,  vox  Dei.  Revolutions  never  go  back 
ward,  and  when  founded  on  a  great  moral  senti 
ment  stirring  the  heart  of  an  indignant  people, 
their  edicts  are  irresistible  and  final.  Had  the 
slave  power  acquiesced  in  that  election,  had  the 
Southern  States  remained  under  the  Constitution 
and  within  the  Union,  and  relied  upon  their  con 
stitutional  and  legal  rights,  their  favorite  insti 
tution,  immoral  as  it  was,  blighting  and  fatal  as 
it  was,  might  have  endured  for  another  century. 
The  great  party  that  had  elected  him,  unalterably 

32 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

determined  against  its  extension,  was  neverthe 
less  pledged  not  to  interfere  with  its  continuance 
in  the  States  where  it  already  existed.  Of  course, 
when  new  regions  were  for  ever  closed  against  it, 
from  its  very  nature  it  must  have  begun  to  shrink 
and  to  dwindle;  and  probably  gradual  and 
compensated  emancipation,  which  appealed  very 
strongly  to  the  new  President's  sense  of  justice 
and  expediency,  would,  in  the  progress  of  time, 
by  a  reversion  to  the  ideas  of  the  Founders  of  the 
Republic,  have  found  a  safe  outlet  for  both  mas 
ters  and  slaves.  But  whom  the  gods  wish  to 
destroy  they  first  make  mad,  and  when  seven 
States,  afterwards  increased  to  eleven,  openly 
seceded  from  the  Union,  when  they  declared  and 
began  the  war  upon  the  nation,  and  challenged  its 
mighty  power  to  the  desperate  and  protracted 
struggle  for  its  life,  and  for  the  maintenance  of 
its  authority  as  a  nation  over  its  territory,  they 
gave  to  Lincoln  and  to  freedom  the  sublime  oppor 
tunity  of  history. 

In  his  first  inaugural  address,  when  as  yet  not 
a  drop  of  precious  blood  had  been  shed,  while  he 
held  out  to  them  the  olive  branch  in  one  hand,  in 
the  other  he  presented  the  guarantees  of  the  Con 
stitution,  and  after  reciting  the  emphatic  resolu 
tion  of  the  Convention  that  nominated  him,  that 
the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  "  rights  of  the 
States,  and  especially  the  right  of  each  State  to 
order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions 
according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  es 
sential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  per- 

33 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

fection  and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  de 
pend,  "  lie  reiterated  this  sentiment  and  declared 
with  no  mental  reservation,  "  that  all  the  protec 
tion  which,  consistently  with  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws  can  be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to 
all  the  States  when  lawfully  demanded  for  what 
ever  cause  —  as  cheerfully  to  one  section  as  to 
another." 

When,  however,  these  magnanimous  overtures 
for  peace  and  re-union  were  rejected;  when  the 
seceding  States  defied  the  Constitution  and  every 
clause  and  principle  of  it ;  when  they  persisted  in 
staying  out  of  the  Union  from  which  they  had  se 
ceded,  and  proceeded  to  carve  out  of  its  territory 
a  new  and  hostile  empire  based  on  slavery ;  when 
they  flew  at  the  throat  of  the  nation  and  plunged 
it  into  the  bloodiest  war  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury  —  the  tables  were  turned,  and  the  belief  grad 
ually  came  to  the  mind  of  the  President  that  if 
the  Eebellion  was  not  soon  subdued  by  force  of 
arms,  if  the  war  must  be  fought  out  to  the  bitter 
end,  then  to  reach  that  end  the  salvation  of  the 
nation  itself  might  require  the  destruction  of  sla 
very  wherever  it  existed ;  that  if  the  war  was  to 
continue  on  one  side  for  Disunion,  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  preserve  slavery,  it  must  continue 
on  the  other  side  for  the  Union,  to  destroy  slavery. 

As  he  said,  ' i  Events  control  me ;  I  cannot  con 
trol  events,"  and  as  the  dreadful  war  progressed, 
and  became  more  deadly  and  dangerous,  the  un 
alterable  conviction  was  forced  upon  him  that,  in 
order  that  the  frightful  sacrifice  of  life  and  treas- 

34 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 

ure  on  both  sides  might  not  be  all  in  vain,  it  had 
become  his  duty  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army,  as  a  necessary  war  measure,  to  strike  a 
blow  at  the  Rebellion  which,  all  others  failing, 
would  inevitably  lead  to  its  annihilation,  by  anni 
hilating  the  very  thing  for  which  it  was  contend 
ing.  His  own  words  are  the  best :  — 

'  *  I  understood  that  my  oath  to  preserve  the  Constitu 
tion  to  the  best  of  my  ability  imposed  upon  me  the  duty 
of  preserving  by  every  indispensable  means  that  Gov 
ernment  —  that  Nation,  of  which  that  Constitution  was 
the  organic  law.  Was  it  possible  to  lose  the  Nation  and 
yet  preserve  the  Constitution?  By  general  law,  life 
and  limb  must  be  protected;  yet  often  a  limb  must  be 
amputated  to  save  a  life ;  but  a  life  is  never  wisely  given 
to  save  a  limb.  I  felt  that  measures  otherwise  uncon 
stitutional  might  become  lawful  by  becoming  indispens 
able  to  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  through  the 
preservation  of  the  Nation.  Right  or  wrong,  I  assumed 
this  ground  and  now  avow  it.  I  could  not  feel  that,  to 
the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had  ever  tried  to  preserve  the 
Constitution  if  to  save  slavery  or  any  minor  matter,  I 
should  permit  the  wreck  of  Government,  Country  and 
Constitution  all  together. " 

And  so,  at  last,  when  in  his  judgment  the  indis 
pensable  necessity  had  come,  he  struck  the  fatal 
blow,  and  signed  the  Proclamation  which  has  made 
his  name  immortal.  By  it,  the  President,  as  Com 
mander-in-Chief  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion, 
and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for  sup 
pressing  the  rebellion,  proclaimed  all  persons  held 

35 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 

as  slaves  in  the  States  and  parts  of  States  then 
in  rebellion  to  be  thenceforward  free,  and  declared 
that  the  executive,  with  the  Army  and  Navy,  would 
recognize  and  maintain  their  freedom. 

In  the  other  great  steps  of  the  Government, 
which  led  to  the  triumphant  prosecution  of  the 
war,  he  necessarily  shared  the  responsibility  and 
the  credit  with  the  great  statesmen  who  stayed  up 
his  hands  in  his  Cabinet — with  Seward,  Chase 
and  Stanton  and  the  rest,  and  with  his  generals 
and  admirals,  his  soldiers  and  sailors  —  but  this 
great  act  was  absolutely  his  own.  The  conception 
and  execution  were  exclusively  his.  He  laid  it 
before  his  Cabinet  as  a  measure  on  which  his  mind 
was  made  up  and  could  not  be  changed,  asking 
them  only  for  suggestions  as  to  details.  He  chose 
the  time  and  the  circumstances  -under  which  the 
Emancipation  should  be  proclaimed  and  when  it 
should  take  effect. 

It  came  not  an  hour  too  soon ;  but  public  opin 
ion  in  the  North  would  not  have  sustained  it  ear 
lier.  In  the  first  eighteen  months  of  the  war  its 
ravages  had  extended  from  the  Atlantic  to  beyond 
the  Mississippi.  Many  victories  in  the  West  had 
been  balanced  and  paralyzed  by  inaction  and  dis 
asters  in  Virginia,  only  partially  redeemed  by  the 
bloody  and  indecisive  battle  of  Antietam ;  a  reac 
tion  had  set  in  from  the  general  enthusiasm  which 
had  swept  the  Northern  States  after  the  assault 
npon  Sumter.  It  could  not  truly  be  said  that  they 
had  lost  heart,  but  faction  was  raising  its  head. 
Heard  through  the  land  like  the  blast  of  a  bugle, 

36 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  Proclamation  rallied  the  patriotism  of  the 
country  to  fresh  sacrifices  and  renewed  ardor.  It 
was  a  step  that  could  not  be  revoked.  It  relieved 
the  conscience  of  the  nation  from  an  incubus  that 
had  oppressed  it  from  its  birth.  The  United 
States  were  rescued  from  the  false  predicament 
in  which  they  had  been  from  the  beginning,  and 
the  great  popular  heart  leaped  with  new  enthusi 
asm  for  * '  Liberty  and  Union,  henceforth  and  for 
ever,  one  and  inseparable."  It  brought  not  only 
moral  but  material  support  to  the  cause  of  the 
Government,  for  within  two  years  120,000  colored 
troops  were  enlisted  in  the  military  service  and 
following  the  national  flag,  supported  by  all  the 
loyalty  of  the  North,  and  led  by  its  choicest  spirits. 
One  mother  said,  when  her  son  was  offered  the 
command  of  the  first  colored  regiment,  ' '  If  he 
accepts  it  I  shall  be  as  proud  as  if  I  had  heard 
that  he  was  shot. ' '  He  was  shot  heading  a  gallant 
charge  of  his  regiment.  The  Confederates  replied 
to  a  request  of  his  friends  for  his  body  that  they 
* '  had  buried  him  under  a  layer  of  his  niggers  ' ' ; 
but  that  mother  has  lived  to  enjoy  thirty-six  years 
of  his  glory,  and  Boston  has  erected  its  noblest 
monument  to  his  memory. 

The  effect  of  the  Proclamation  upon  the  actual 
progress  of  the  war  was  not  immediate,  but  wher 
ever  the  Federal  armies  advanced  they  carried 
freedom  with  them,  and  when  the  summer  came 
round  the  new  spirit  and  force  which  had  animated 
the  heart  of  the  Government  and  people  were  man 
ifest.  In  the  first  week  of  July,  the  decisive  battle 

87 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

of  Gettysburg  turned  the  tide  of  war,  and  the  fall 
of  Vicksburg  made  the  great  river  free  from  its 
source  to  the  Gulf. 

On  foreign  nations  the  influence  of  the  Procla 
mation  and  of  these  new  victories  was  of  great 
importance.  In  those  days,  when  there  was  no 
cable,  it  was  not  easy  for  foreign  observers  to 
appreciate  what  was  really  going  on;  they  could 
not  see  clearly  the  true  state  of  affairs,  as  in  the 
last  year  of  the  nineteenth  century  we  have  been 
able,  by  our  new  electric  vision,  to  watch  every 
event  at  the  antipodes  and  observe  its  effect.  The 
rebel  emissaries,  sent  over  to  solicit  intervention, 
spared  no  pains  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of 
public  and  private  men  and  upon  the  press  their 
own  views  of  the  character  of  the  contest.  The 
prospects  of  the  Confederacy  were  always  better 
abroad  than  at  home.  The  Stock  Markets  of  the 
world  gambled  upon  its  chances,  and  its  bonds  at 
one  time  were  in  high  favor. 

Such  ideas  as  these  were  seriously  held:  that 
the  North  was  fighting  for  empire,  and  the  South 
for  independence;  that  the  Southern  States,  in 
stead  of  being  the  grossest  oligarchies,  essentially 
despotisms,  founded  on  the  right  of  one  man  to 
appropriate  the  fruit  of  other  men's  toil  and  to 
exclude  them  from  equal  rights,  were  real  repub 
lics,  feebler  to  be  sure  than  their  Northern  rivals, 
but  representing  the  same  idea  of  freedom,  and 
that  the  mighty  strength  of  the  nation  was  being 
put  forth  to  crush  them ;  that  Jefferson  Davis  and 
the  Southern  leaders  had  created  a  nation;  that 

38 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

the  republican  experiment  had  failed,  and  the 
Union  had  ceased  to  exist.  But  the  crowning  ar 
gument  to  foreign  minds  was  that  it  was  an  utter 
impossibility  for  the  Government  to  win  in  the 
contest;  that  the  success  of  the  Southern  States, 
so  far  as  separation  was  concerned,  was  as  cer 
tain  as  any  event  yet  future  and  contingent  could 
be;  that  the  subjugation  of  the  South  by  the 
North,  even  if  it  could  be  accomplished,  would 
prove  a  calamity  to  the  United  States  and  the 
world,  and  especially  calamitous  to  the  negro  race ; 
and  that  such  a  victory  would  necessarily  leave 
the  people  of  the  South  for  many  generations 
cherishing  deadly  hostility  against  the  Govern 
ment  and  the  North,  and  plotting  always  to  re 
cover  their  independence. 

When  Lincoln  issued  his  Proclamation,  he  knew 
that  all  these  ideas  were  founded  in  error;  that 
the  national  resources  were  inexhaustible;  that 
the  Government  could  and  would  win,  and  that  if 
slavery  were  once  finally  disposed  of,  the  only 
cause  of  difference  being  out  of  the  way,  the  North 
and  South  would  come  together  again  and,  by- 
and-by,  be  as  good  friends  as  ever.  In  many  quar 
ters  abroad  the  Proclamation  was  welcomed  with 
enthusiasm  by  the  friends  of  America ;  but  I  think 
the  demonstrations  in  its  favor  that  brought  more 
gladness  to  Lincoln's  heart  than  any  other,  were 
the  meetings  held  in  the  manufacturing  centres  by 
the  very  operatives  upon  whom  the  war  bore  the 
hardest,  expressing  the  most  enthusiastic  sympa 
thy  with  the  Proclamation,  while  they  bore  with 

39 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN 

heroic  fortitude  the  grievous  privations  which  the 
war  entailed  upon  them.  Mr.  Lincoln's  expecta 
tion  when  he  announced  to  the  world  that  all 
slaves  in  all  States  then  in  rebellion  were  set  free, 
must  have  been  that  the  avowed  position  of  his 
Government,  that  the  continuance  of  the  war  now 
meant  the  annihilation  of  slavery,  would  make 
intervention  impossible  for  any  foreign  nation 
whose  people  were  lovers  of  liberty,  —  and  so  the 
result  proved. 

The  growth  and  development  of  Lincoln's  men 
tal  power  and  moral  force,  of  his  intense  and  mag 
netic  personality,  after  the  vast  responsibilities 
of  Government  were  thrown  upon  him  at  the  age 
of  fifty-two,  furnish  a  rare  and  striking  illustra 
tion  of  the  marvellous  capacity  and  adaptability 
of  the  human  intellect  —  of  the  sound  mind  in  the 
sound  body.  He  came  to  the  discharge  of  the 
great  duties  of  the  Presidency  with  absolutely  no 
experience  in  the  administration  of  Government, 
or  of  the  vastly  varied  and  complicated  questions 
of  foreign  and  domestic  policy  which  immediately 
arose,  and  continued  to  press  upon  him  during  the 
rest  of  his  life ;  but  he  mastered  each  as  it  came, 
apparently  with  the  facility  of  a  trained  and  expe 
rienced  ruler.  As  Clarendon  said  of  Cromwell  - 
"  His  parts  seemed  to  be  raised  by  the  demands 
of  great  station. ' '  His  life  through  it  all  was  one 
of  intense  labor,  anxiety  and  distress,  without  one 
hour  of  peaceful  repose  from  first  to  last.  But  he 
rose  to  every  occasion.  He  led  public  opinion, 
but  did  not  march  so  far  in  advance  of  it  as  to 

40 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

fail  of  its  effective  support  in  every  great  emer 
gency.  He  knew  the  heart  and  thought  of  the 
people,  as  no  ma'n  not  in  constant  and  absolute 
sympathy  with  them  could  have  known  it,  and  so, 
holding  their  confidence,  he  triumphed  through 
and  with  them.  Not  only  was  there  this  steady 
growth  of  intellect,  but  the  infinite  delicacy  of  his 
nature  and  its  capacity  for  refinement  developed 
also,  as  exhibited  in  the  purity  and  perfection  of 
his  language  and  style  of  speech.  The  rough  back 
woodsman,  who  had  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  Uni 
versity,  became  in  the  end,  by  self-training  and 
the  exercise  of  his  own  powers  of  mind,  heart  and 
soul,  a  master  of  style  —  and  some  of  his  utter 
ances  will  rank  with  the  best,  the  most  perfectly 
adapted  to  the  occasion  which  produced  them. 

Have  you  time  to  listen  to  his  two  minutes' 
speech  at  Gettysburg,  at  the  dedication  of  the  Sol 
diers  '  Cemetery?  His  whole  soul  was  in  it: 

1  i  Four  score  and  seven  years  ago,  our  fathers  brought 
forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation  conceived  in  liberty 
and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created 
equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing 
whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so 
dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great 
battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a 
portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  resting  place  for  those 
who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live.  It 
is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 
But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot  dedicate  —  we  cannot 
consecrate  —  we  cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave 
men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here  have  conse- 

41 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

crated  it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract. 
The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we 
say  here  —  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here. 
It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the 
unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus 
far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here 
dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us  —  that 
from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to 
that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of 
devotion  —  that  we  here  highly  resolve,  that  these  dead 
shall  not  have  died  in  vain  —  that  this  nation  under  God 
shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom  —  and  that  govern 
ment  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people, 
shall  not  perish  from  the  earth.'* 

He  lived  to  see  his  work  indorsed  by  an  over 
whelming  majority  of  his  countrymen.  In  his  sec 
ond  Inaugural  Address,  pronounced  just  forty 
days  before  his  death,  there  is  a  single  passage 
which  well  displays  his  indomitable  will  and  at 
the  same  time  his  deep  religious  feeling,  his  sub 
lime  charity  to  the  enemies  of  his  country  and  his 
broad  and  Catholic  humanity : 

"  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of 
those  offences  which  in  the  Providence  of  God  must  needs 
come,  but  which  having  continued  through  the  appointed 
time,  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He  gives  to  both 
North  and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the  woe  due  to 
those  by  whom  the  offence  came,  shall  we  discern  therein 
any  departure  from  those  divine  attributes  which  the 
believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to  Him  ?  Fondly 
do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty 
scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God 

42 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

wills,  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 
bondsmen's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited 
toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn 
with  the  lash,  shall  be  paid  with  another  drawn  by  the 
sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it 
must  be  said,  l  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether. '  : 

1 '  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all ;  with 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right  — 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to  bind  up 
the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have 
borne  the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan  —  to 
do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting 
peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations." 

His  prayer  was  answered.  The  forty  days  of 
life  that  remained  to  him  were  crowded  with  great 
historic  events.  He  lived  to  see  his  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation  embodied  in  an  amendment  of 
the  Constitution,  adopted  by  Congress  and  sub 
mitted  to  the  States  for  ratification.  The  mighty 
scourge  of  war  did  speedily  pass  away,  for  it  was 
given  him  to  witness  the  surrender  of  the  Eebel 
army  and  the  fall  of  their  capital,  and  the  starry 
flag  that  he  loved,  waving  in  triumph  over  the 
national  soil.  When  he  died  by  the  madman's 
hand  in  the  supreme  hour  of  victory,  the  van 
quished  lost  their  best  friend,  and  the  human  race 
one  of  its  noblest  examples;  and  all  the  friends 
of  freedom  and  justice,  in  whose  cause  he  lived 
and  died,  joined  hands  as  mourners  at  his  grave. 


43 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

Inaugural  address,  October  23rd,   1903,   before  the  Birmingham  and 
Midland  Institute. 

T71DTJ  CATION  is  now  in  all  civilized  countries 
J-^  the  question  of  the  hour,  and  the  unsolved 
problems  of  secondary,  technical,  and  university 
education  are  engaging  universal  attention.  As 
a  diversion  from  this  general  discussion,  it  may 
not  be  uninteresting  to  study  the  lives  of  those 
great  and  rare  men  who,  without  any  of  these 
extraneous  aids,  achieve  undying  fame  and  confer 
priceless  blessings  on  mankind.  For  them  schools, 
colleges,  and  universities  are  of  little  account, 
and  are  not  required  for  their  development.  The 
world  is  their  school,  and  necessity  is  often  their 
only  teacher,  but  their  lives  are  the  world 's  treas 
ures.  It  is  in  this  view  that  I  ask  your  attention 
for  a  brief  hour  to  the  life,  character,  and  achieve 
ments  of  Benjamin  Franklin  of  Philadelphia. 

His  whole  career  has  been  summed  up  by  the 
great  French  statesman  who  was  one  of  his  per 
sonal  friends  and  correspondents  in  six  words, 
Latin  words  of  course :  — 

"  Eripuit  coelo  fulmen,  sceptrumque  tyrannis," 
which,  unfortunately  for  our  language,  cannot  be 
translated  into  English  in  less  than  twelve :  — 

16  He  snatched  the  lightning  from  the  skies  and 
the  sceptre  from  tyrants." 

47 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

Surely  the  briefest  and  most  brilliant  biog 
raphy  ever  written.  He  enlarged  the  boundaries 
of  human  knowledge  by  discovering  laws  and 
facts  of  Nature  unknown  before,  and  applying 
them  to  the  use  and  service  of  man,  and  that 
entitles  him  to  lasting  fame.  But  his  other  serv 
ice  to  mankind  differed  from  this  only  in  kind, 
and  was  quite  equal  in  degree.  For  he  stands 
second  only  to  Washington  in  the  list  of  heroic 
patriots  who  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  stood 
for  those  fundamental  principles  of  English  lib 
erty,  which  culminated  in  the  independence  of  the 
United  States,  and  have  ever  since  been  shared 
by  the  English-speaking  race  the  world  over. 

You  must  all  be  familiar  with  the  principal 
facts  in  Franklin's  life.  He  was  born  a  British 
subject  at  Boston  in  Massachusetts,  then  a  village 
of  about  12,000  inhabitants,  in  1706,  the  year  in 
which  Marlborough  won  the  battle  of  Ramillies 
and  made  every  New  Englander  very  proud  of 
being  a  subject  of  Queen  Anne.  He  was  the  fif 
teenth  child  in  a  family  of  seventeen,  a  rate  of 
multiplication  enough  to  frighten  the  life  out  of 
Malthus,  and  more  than  sufficient  to  satisfy  the 
extreme  demands  of  President  Eoosevelt.  His 
father,  born  at  Ecton  in  Northamptonshire,  came 
of  that  ancient  and  sturdy  Saxon  yeomanry  which 
has  done  so  much  for  the  making  of  England. 
Having  followed  the  trade  of  a  dyer  for  some 
years  at  Banbury,  he  emigrated  in  1685  to  Boston, 
where,  finding  little  encouragement  for  his  old 
trade,  he  engaged  in  the  business  of  tallow  chan- 

48 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

dler  and  soap  boiler.  The  boy  could  never  re 
member  when  he  learned  to  read  and  write,  and 
at  eight  years  old  he  was  sent  to  the  Boston  Gram 
mar  School,  one  of  those  free  common  schools 
then  and  ever  since  the  pride  of  the  Colony  and 
the  State.  But  in  two  years,  at  the  age  of  ten, 
his  school  days  were  over  for  ever.  His  father 
finding  that  with  the  heavy  burden  of  his  great 
family  he  could  afford  him  no  more  education, 
took  the  child  home  to  assist  in  his  business,  and 
the  next  two  years  the  future  philosopher  and 
diplomatist  spent  in  cutting  candle  wicks,  filling 
moulds,  tending  the  shop  and  running  errands. 

That  he  highly  valued  the  little  schooling  that 
he  had,  meagre  as  it  must  have  been,  appears 
from  his  last  will  made  sixty- two  years  after 
wards,  in  which  he  says  that  he  owed  his  first  in 
struction  in  literature  to  the  free  grammar  schools 
of  his  native  town  of  Boston,  and  leaves  to  the 
town  one  hundred  pounds  sterling,  the  annual 
interest  to  be  laid  out  in  silver  medals  to  be  dis 
tributed  as  honorary  rewards  in  those  schools, 
and  to  this  day  the  Franklin  Medals  are  striven 
for  and  valued  as  the  most  honorable  prize  that 
a  Boston  boy  can  win. 

But  how  did  this  particular  boy,  without  an 
hour's  tuition  of  any  kind  after  he  was  ten  years 
old,  come  to  be  the  most  famous  American  of  his 
time,  and  win  his  place  in  the  front  rank  of  the 
world's  scientists,  diplomatists,  statesmen,  men 
of  letters,  and  men  of  affairs!  It  was  by  sheer 
force  of  brains,  character,  severe  self-discipline, 

49 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

untiring  industry  and  mother-wit.  His  predom 
inant  trait  was  practical  common  sense  amounting 
to  genius. }  Grod  gave  him  the  sound  mind  in  the 
sound  body,  and  he  did  the  rest  himself.  He  soon 
revolted  at  the  vulgar  duties  of  his  father's  busi 
ness,  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  was  apprenticed 
till  his  majority  to  his  elder  brother,  who  was  a 
printer  and  bookseller,  and  the  publisher  of  the 
New  England  Courant,  one  of  the  earliest  news 
papers  in  the  Colonies. 

From  this  time  forward  the  printing  office  was 
his  school  and  his  university,  and  probably  did 
more  for  him  than  Oxford  or  Harvard  could  then 
have  done.  With  a  raging  thirst  for  knowledge 
he  developed  a  keen  and  unfailing  observation  of 
things  and  of  men,  and,  above  all,  a  constant  study 
of  himself,  of  which  he  was  a  very  rare  example. 
He  denied  himself  every  pleasure  but  reading, 
and  robbed  his  body  of  food  and  sleep  that  he 
might  find  time  and  food  for  his  mind,  reading 
every  good  book  on  which  he  could  lay  his  hands. 
He  soon  mastered  the  art  of  printing  as  it  was 
then  known,  and  very  early  developed  a  faculty 
for  the  use  of  his  pen  which  gave  his  brain  a 
vent.  He  began  with  two  ballads  —  ' t  The  Light 
house  Tragedy  "  and  "  Blackbeard  the  Pirate  " 
-  and  hawked  them  about  the  town.  The  first, 
he  says,  sold  wonderfully,  but  his  father  dis 
couraged  him  by  ridiculing  his  performances,  and 
telling  him  verse  makers  were  generally  beggars, 
and  "  So,"  he  says,  "  I  escaped  being  a  poet; 
most  probably  a  very  bad  one. ' ' 

50 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

So  precocious  was  his  literary  faculty  that  very 
soon  he  began  contributing  leading  articles  to  the 
Courant,  and  when  he  was  sixteen,  his  brother 
having  been  placed  under  an  interdict  for  criti 
cizing  the  authorities,  he  became  himself  the  pub 
lisher  and  editor,  and  of  course  the  circulation 
increased.  But  he  was  still  only  an  apprentice, 
and  his  manly  and  independent  spirit  found  it 
as  hard  to  brook  the  indignities  and  blows  to 
which  his  master,  though  he  was  his  brother,  sub 
jected  him,  as  he  had  found  it  before  to  ladle  the 
tallow  and  fill  the  moulds  in  his  father's  shop, 
and  so  at  seventeen  he  took  to  his  heels,  shook  the 
dust  of  Boston  from  his  feet,  and  ran  away  to 
Philadelphia. 

He  landed  in  the  Quaker  City  with  but  one  dol 
lar  in  his  pocket,  and  as  he  had  often  dined  on 
bread,  he  bought  three  rolls,  and  marched  up 
Market  Street,  his  pockets  stuffed  with  shirts  and 
stockings,  eating  one  roll  and  with  another  under 
each  arm.  His  future  wife  saw  him  in  this  guise 
as  he  passed  her  father's  door,  and  thought  he 
presented  a  ridiculous  appearance,  as  he  certainly 
did.  But  he  had  thoroughly  learned  his  trade, 
and  soon  found  employment  as  a  journeyman 
printer.  He  would  have  gone  on  very  well  had 
he  not  been  sent  to  London  by  the  Governor  of 
the  Province  on  a  promise  of  business  which  to 
tally  failed.  He  found  himself  in  that  great  city 
without  a  friend,  and  with  little  money  in  his 
pocket.  But  he  soon  found  employment  at  good 
wages  in  the  best  printing  offices  at  thirty  shil- 

51 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

lings  a  week,  lodged  in  Little  Britain  at  three  and 
sixpence,  and  so  managed  to  keep  Ms  head  above 
water  for  eighteen  months,  but  lived  an  aimless 
and  somewhat  irregular  life. 

However,  he  worked  hard  at  his  trade,  and 
made  some  ingenious  acquaintances,  among  them 
Sir  Hans  Sloane,  the  founder  of  the  British  Mu 
seum,  and  Sir  William  Wyndham,  once  Chancel 
lor  of  the  Exchequer  —  the  former  by  selling  him 
a  curiosity  which  he  had  brought  from  America ; 
the  latter  by  his  skill  in  swimming,  in  which  he 
had  from  boyhood  been  a  great  expert.  His  own 
account  of  this  last  acquaintance  is  not  a  little 
diverting.  He  had  visited  Chelsea  with  a  party 
of  friends,  and  on  the  return  by  water  was  in 
duced  to  give  them  an  exhibition  of  his  skill  in 
this  manly  art.  He  swam  all  the  way  from  Chel 
sea  to  Blackfriars,  performing  many  feats  of  agil 
ity  both  upon  and  under  water  that  surprised  and 
pleased  the  spectators.  Sir  William,  hearing  of 
this,  sent  for  him,  and  offered  if  he  would  teach 
his  two  sons  to  swim  to  set  him  up  in  that  busi 
ness,  and  so  he  might  have  spent  his  life  in  Lon 
don  as  the  head  of  a  swimming  school,  and  never 
have  lived  to  snatch  the  lightning  from  the  clouds 
or  the  sceptre  from  tyrants,  or  to  change  the  map 
of  the  world. 

Before  leaving  London  he  accepted  from  a  rep 
utable  merchant  who  was  returning  to  Philadel 
phia  an  offer  of  a  clerkship,  and  in  a  few  months, 
he  learned  much  of  the  business,  but  was  thrown 
out  of  it  by  the  death  of  his  employer,  and  by  a 

52 


BENJAMIN   FKANKLIN 

terrible  illness,  from  which  he  barely  recovered. 
Referring  to  this  illness  he  wrote  his  own  epitaph, 
which,  fortunately  for  the  world,  there  was  no 
occasion  to  use :  — 

The  Body 

of 

Benjamin  Franklin 
(Like  the  cover  of  an  old  book, 

Its  contents  torn  out 
and  stripped  of  its  lettering  and  binding), 

Lies  here,  food  for  worms. 

Yet  the  work  itself  shall  not  be  lost, 

For  it  will,  as  he  believed,  appear  once  more 

In  a  new 

And  more  beautiful  Edition, 
Corrected  and  Amended 

By 
The  Author. 

Soon  after  this  illness  he  turned  over  a  new 
leaf,  with  firm  resolve  to  train  himself  for  a  suc 
cessful  and  honorable  life  by  the  practice  of 
every  virtue.  He  returned  to  his  old  business  of 
printing,  which  for  twenty  years  he  followed  with 
the  utmost  diligence,  and  became  very  prosperous. 

About  this  time  he  conceived  the  bold  and  ardu 
ous  project  of  arriving  at  moral  perfection,  and 
rigidly  schooled  himself  in  the  virtues  of  temper 
ance,  order,  resolution,  frugality,  industry,  sin 
cerity,  moderation,  and  cleanliness.  By  constant 
reading,  study,  and  observation  he  made  the  very 
best  of  the  great  mental  capacity  with  which  he 
had  been  endowed  by  Nature.  He  set  to  work 

53 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

deliberately  and  with  conscientious  fidelity  to  im 
prove  to  the  best  advantage  all  his  faculties,  not 
for  his  own  good  and  happiness  only,  but  for  the 
benefit  of  the  community  to  which  he  belonged. 
From  an  odd  volume  of  the  Spectator  which  fell 
into  his  hands  he  modelled  his  style,  training  him 
self  more  rigorously  than  any  school  could  have 
trained  him,  and  thus  acquired  very  early  in  life 
that  power  of  clear  and  lucid  expression  which 
made  all  his  subsequent  writings  so  effective. 

A  brilliant  modern  writer,  Hugh  Black,  has  said 
that  "  culture  is  the  conscious  training  in  which 
a  man  makes  use  of  every  educational  means 
within  his  reach,  feeding  his  inner  life  by  every 
vital  force  in  history  and  experience,  and  so  ad 
justing  himself  to  his  environment  that  he  shall 
absorb  the  best  products  of  the  life  of  his  time, 
thus  making  his  personality  rich  and  deep." 

It  was  this  self-culture  that  Franklin  sought  to 
•  attain,  and  he  never  lost  sight  of  his  object.  Self- 
control  once  achieved,  enabled  him  in  large  meas 
ure  to  control  others.  No  wonder,  then,  that  in 
Philadelphia,  at  that  time  already  a  large  city,  he 
not  only  rapidly  achieved  success  in  his  business, 
but  became  before  long  a  marked  figure  in  Penn 
sylvania  and  throughout  the  thirteen  Colonies. 
He  never  wasted  time,  and  so  time  never  wasted 
him,  and  at  the  age  of  forty-two  he  was  able  to 
withdraw  from  the  active  management  of  his 
business,  and  to  devote  himself  to  public  affairs 
and  to  scientific  studies  in  which  his  soul  de 
lighted. 

54 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

In  the  meantime,  and  always  in  the  way  of  busi 
ness,  he  had  engaged  in  two  literary  ventures, 
which  at  the  same  time  exercised  his  active  brains, 
and  extended  his  reputation  very  widely.  He 
purchased  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  when  it  was 
on  the  verge  of  ruin  and  collapse,  and  it  became 
under  his  editorship  the  best  newspaper  in  Amer 
ica,  and  by  means  of  it  he  exercised  vast  power 
and  influence  throughout  the  Colonies.  And  Poor 
Richard's  Almanac,  which  he  started  when  he  was 
twenty-six  years  old,  and  continued  to  publish  for 
twenty-five  years,  proved  to  be  a  splendid  vehicle 
for  the  exercise  of  his  wonderful  common-sense, 
lively  wit,  and  keen  interest  in  all  sorts  of  affairs. 
He  was  very  human,  and  nothing  human  escaped 
his  searching  interest.  It  was  an  almanac  de 
signed  for  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  the  people.  .Where  there  were  few  or  no 
books,  it  found  its  way  with  the  Bible  into  every 
household  in  the  land.  Every  number  was  full  of 
worldly  wisdom,  proverbial  philosophy,  inculcat 
ing  the  practice  of  all  the  homely  virtues,  such  as 
honesty,  frugality,  industry,  temperance,  and 
thrift  as  the  sure  guides  to  success  and  happiness, 
and  with  all  this  a  generous  sprinkling  of  the  live 
liest  wit  and  fun.  Its  circulation  rapidly  multi 
plied,  and  Poor  Bichard,  as  a  pseudonym  of  Ben 
jamin  Franklin,  made  him  and  his  personal  traits, 
which  it  so  fitly  displayed,  familiar  in  every 
household,  and  the  influence  which  he  wielded  by 
it  was  simply  unbounded. 

In  later  years  he  published  "  Father  Abra- 

55 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

ham's  Speech,"  which  was  a  comprehensive  sum 
ming  up  of  all  Poor  Richard's  good  things,  ran 
sacking  all  literature  for  proverbs  of  wit  and 
wisdom  and  inventing  many  of  his  own,  touching 
the  conduct  of  life  at  all  points,  so  far  as  utility 
and  worldly  advantage  are  concerned.  The  world 
greedily  seized  it  and  still  cherishes  it,  for  it  may 
now  be  read,  not  in  English  only,  but  in  French, 
German,  Spanish,  Italian,  Russian,  Dutch,  Bohe 
mian,  Modern  Greek,  Gaelic,  and  Portuguese. 
Under  the  title  "  Science  du  Bonhomme  Rich 
ard  "  it  has  been  thirty  times  printed  in  French 
and  twice  in  Italian,  and  as  "  The  Way  to 
Wealth  "  twenty-seven  times  in  English  in  pam 
phlet  form,  and  innumerable  times  as  a  broad 
side.  It  is  by  far  the  most  famous  piece  the  Col 
onies  ever  produced.  No  wonder,  for  if  any  man 
would  follow  its  precepts  as  faithfully  as  Frank 
lin  did  himself,  he  was  sure  to  become  healthy, 
wealthy,  and  wise.  A  cheerful  temperament  that 
was  worth  millions,  and  irresistible  good  humor, 
pervaded  all  he  wrote.  Sydney  Smith,  another 
example  of  the  same  traits,  by  way  of  playful 
menace,  said  to  his  daughter  "  I  will  disinherit 
you,  if  you  do  not  admire  everything  written  by 
Franklin." 

From  the  time  that  his  circumstances  permitted 
jhim  to  do  anything  but  work  solely  for  daily 
pbread,  Franklin  manifested  and  cultivated  a  con 
stant  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  his  unerring 
I  instinct  for  public  service  was  as  keen  as  if  he  had 
/  been  specially  trained  to  that  end  at  Oxford  or  at 

56 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

Cambridge.  His  fellow  citizens,  recognizing  his 
capacity  and  efficiency,  eagerly  availed  themselves 
of  his  leadership  in  every  public  movement.  Tims 
he  became  the  founder  or  promoter  of  the  first 
debating  society  for  mutual  culture  and  improve 
ment  in  Philadelphia,  the  first  subscription 
library,  the  first  fire  club,  of  the  American  Philo 
sophical  Society,  and  of  what  finally  became  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  which  still  holds  a 
deservedly  high  rank  among  institutions  of  learn 
ing.  Under  his  inspiring  lead  Philadelphia  be 
came  better  lighted,  better  paved,  better  policed, 
and  better  read  than  any  other  city  on  the  con 
tinent.  As  Clerk,  and  for  many  years  a  Member 
of  the  Assembly,  Postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  and 
Deputy  Postmaster-General  for  the  Continent,  he 
rendered  great  service,  and  came  to  know  the 
affairs  of  his  own  and  the  other  Colonies,  and 
thus  became  known  himself  better  than  any  other 
man  in  the  land. 

In  1754  he  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the  Con 
vention  held  at  Albany,  to  form  a  plan  for  the 
common  defence  of  the  Colonies  and  the  Empire 
against  the  French  and  Indians.  It  was  Frank 
lin  who  devised  the  broad  and  comprehensive 
scheme  which  the  Convention  adopted,  many 
features  of  which  subsequently  appeared  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But  it  was 
rejected  by  the  Colonies  because  it  gave  too  much 
power  to  the  Crown,  and  by  the  British  Govern 
ment  because  it  gave  too  much  power  to  the. 
Colonies  —  a  sure  proof  of  that  wise  moderation 

57 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

which  always  characterized  its  author.  In  the  fol 
lowing  year  he  rendered  great  services  to  General 
Braddock,  who  had  entered  on  his  ill-fated  expe 
dition  for  the  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne  without 
proper  supplies  or  means  of  transportation,  and 
after  his  calamitous  defeat  Franklin  actually  took 
the  field  with  a  considerable  military  force,  and 
commanded  on  the  frontier,  building  stockades 
and  forts,  and  protecting  the  panic-stricken 
Colonists  from  the  threatened  onset  of  the  enemy. 
Carlyle  thus  describes  Franklin's  services  to 
Braddock :  — 

"  About  New  Year's  Day,  1755,  Braddock  with  his  two 
regiments  and  completed  apparatus  got  to  sea;  arrived 
20th  February  at  Williamsburg,  Virginia;  found  now 
that  this  was  not  the  place  to  arrive  at;  that  he  would 
lose  six  weeks  of  marching  by  not  having  landed  in 
Pennsylvania  instead;  found  that  his  stores  had  been 
mispacked  at  Cork;  that  this  had  happened  and  also 
that  —  and,  in  short,  found  that  chaos  had  been  very 
considerably  prevalent  in  this  adventure  of  his,  and 
did  still  in  all  that  now  lay  round  it  prevail.  Poor 
Braddock  took  the  Colonial  militia  regiments ;  Colonel 
Washington,  as  aide-de-camp,  took  the  Indians  and  ap 
pendages,  Colonel  Chaos  much  presiding ;  and,  after  in 
finite  delays  and  confused  hagglings,  got  on  march  — 
2,000  regulars,  and  of  all  sorts  say  4,000  strong. 

"  Got  on  march,  sprawled  and  haggled  up  the  Alle- 
ghanies  —  such  a  commissariat,  such  a  wagon  service  as 
was  seldom  seen  before.  Poor  General  and  Army,  he 
was  like  to  be  starved  outright  at  one  time,  had  not  a 
certain  Mr.  Franklin  come  to  him  with  charitable  oxen 
with  £500  worth  provisions,  live  and  dead,  subscribed 

58 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

for  at  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Benjamin  Franklin,  since 
celebrated  over  all  the  world,  who  did  not  much  admire 
this  iron  tempered  general  with  the  pipe-clay  brain." 

Thus,  by  the  time  he  reached  middle  life,  Frank 
lin  had  become  the  best  known  and  most  impor 
tant  man  in  the  Colonies ;  but  with  all  his  varied 
work  he  had  never  .lost  sight  of  science  and  its 
practical  application  to  the  service  of  man,  which 
was  really  his  first  love.  His  vast  reading  had 
made  him  a  living  encyclopaedia,  and  he  had  man 
aged  to  acquire  some  knowledge  of  French, 
Italian,  Spanish,  and  Latin,  which  then  and  after 
wards  stood  him  in  great  stead.  His  inventive 
genius  was  called  into  constant  play,  and  he  made 
from  time  to  time  many  new  and  useful  inven 
tions,  for  no  one  of  which  would  he  ever  take  a 
patent  or  any  personal  advantage  to  himself,  for 
he  said  that  as  we  enjoy  great  advantages  from 
the  inventions  of  others,  we  should  be  glad  to  give 
the  world  the  benefit  of  our  own. 

But  his  discoveries  and  inventions  finally  cul 
minated  in  his  studies  and  experiments  in  elec 
tricity,  and  their  startling  and  marvellous  result 
made  him  as  famous  in  all  other  co-untries  as  he 
already  was  in  his  own,  and  placed  him  in  the 
very  front  rank  of  living  men.  The  story  of 
Franklin  and  his  kite  drawing  the  lightning  from 
the  clouds,  and  making  positive  practical  proof  of 
its  identity  with  electricity,  has  been  too  often 
told  to  need  to  be  repeated  here.  It  was  no  lucky 
accident.  It  \vas  seven  years  since  the  Leyden 

59 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

Jar,  the  first  storage  battery  of  electricity,  was 
made,  and  during  the  whole  interval  Franklin  and 
all  the  other  scientists  in  the  world  interested  in 
the  subject  had  been  studying  and  experimenting 
to  find  out  what  this  mysterious  substance  was. 
He  had  been  writing  from  1747  to  1751  the  results 
of  his  investigations  to  his  friend  Collinson  in 
London,  by  whom  they  were  read  at  the  Royal 
Society,  at  first,  as  he  says,  only  to  be  ignored  or 
laughed  at. 

In  May,  1751,  came  Franklin's  masterly  but 
very  modest  paper  declaring  the  identity  of  elec 
tricity  and  lightning,  and  suggesting  how  by 
pointed  iron  electricity  might  be  actually  drawn 
from  a  storm  cloud,  and  buildings  and  ships  pro 
tected  from  its  danger.  It  was  soon  translated 
into  French,  German,  and  Latin,  had  great  sales, 
and  made  a  tremendous  sensation.  But  Frank 
lin's  fame  reached  the  highest  point  when  D'Ali- 
bard,  a  French  philosopher,  following  the  sugges 
tions  in  his  pamphlet,  constructed  an  apparatus 
exactly  as  Franklin  had  directed,  and  made  actual 
demonstration  of  the  truth  of  his  theory,  a  month 
before  the  great  discoverer  himself  flew  his  kite 
in  his  garden  in  Philadelphia. 

Franklin  took  the  universal  applause  that  fol 
lowed  as  quietly  and  modestly  as  he  had  put  forth 
his  suggestions.  It  was  all  fun  to  him  from  the 
beginning.  Dr.  Priestley  says  that  at  the  close  of 
the  first  summer  of  his  experiments,  when  it  grew 
too  hot  to  continue  them,  the  Philosopher  had  a 
party  on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill,  at  which 

60 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

spirits  were  first  fired  by  a  spark  sentjrom  side 
to  side  through  the  river  without  any  other  con 
ductor  than  the  water,  a  turkey  was  killed  for 
their  dinner  by  the  electrical  shock  and  roasted 
by  the  electrical  jack,  before  a  fire  kindled  by  the 
electrified  bottle,  when  the  health  of  all  the 
famous  electricians  in  England,  Holland,  France, 
and  Germany  was  drunk  in  electrified  bumpers 
under  a  discharge  of  guns  from  the  electrical  bat 
tery.  Honors  and  distinctions  now  crowded 
upon  him :  the  Royal  Society,  as  if  to  make  quick 
amends  for  its  previous  neglect,  by  a  unanimous 
vote  made  him  a  member,  exempting  him  from 
the  payment  of  all  dues,  and  the  next  year  with 
every  circumstance  of  distinction  awarded  him 
the  Copley  Medal,  and  Yale  and  Harvard  con 
ferred  their  honorary  degrees  upon  him. 

However  much  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  ap 
preciated  and  enjoyed  his  growing  fame,  they 
were  not  willing  to  give  him  up  to  science,  but  en 
listed  his  services  and  insisted  upon  his  leader 
ship  in  every  great  political  question.  When  the 
dispute  between  the  Penns  as  Proprietors  and 
the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  on  the  claim  of  the 
former  that  their  estates  should  be  exempt  from 
taxation,  reached  a  crisis  in  1756,  the  Provincial 
Assembly  decided  to  appeal  to  the  King  in  Coun 
cil  for  a  redress  of  their  grievances,  and  who  but 
Franklin  should  go  to  represent  them? 

This  vexatious  business,  finally  ending  in  a  com 
promise  which  was  on  the  whole  satisfactory  to 
his  constituents,  detained  him  in  England  for  up- 

61 


BENJAMIN   FKANKLIN 

wards  of  five  years  —  from  the  summer  of  1757 
till  1762.  Times  and  the  man  had  changed  since 
the  stranded  journeyman  printer  took  lodgings 
in  Little  Britain  at  three  and  sixpence  a  week,  and 
won  his  chief  distinction  by  swimming  in  the 
Thames  from  Chelsea  to  the  City. 

The  houses  of  the  great  were  now  thrown  wide 
open  to  him,  and  the  modest  house  in  Craven 
Street,  where  he  took  up  his  residence,  and  which 
is  still  marked  by  a  tablet  to  commemorate  the 
fact  as  one  of  the  notable  reminiscences  of  Lon 
don,  was  thronged  by  great  scientists  to  congratu 
late  him  on  his  triumphs,  and  to  witness  at  his 
own  hands  his  scientific  experiments.  Congratu 
latory  letters  reached  him  from  all  parts  of  Eu 
rope.  He  made  the  acquaintance  and  friendship 
of  such  men  as  Priestley,  Fothergill,  Garrick, 
Lord  Shelburne,  Lord  Stanhope,  Edmund  Burke, 
Adam  Smith  and  David  Hume,  Dr.  Eobertson, 
Lord  Kames  and  David  Hartley,  with  all  of  whom 
he  enjoyed  delightful  intercourse.  He  witnessed 
the  Coronation  of  George  the  Third,  and  revelled 
in  the  meetings  of  the  Eoyal  Society,  where  his 
welcome  was  very  warm.  Pitt,  who  had  vastly 
weightier  things  upon  his  mind  than  Franklin's 
errand  —  Pitt,  who  afterwards  as  Lord  Chatham 
was,  as  we  shall  see,  one  of  his  staunchest  friends 
and  admirers,  he  found  inaccessible. 

At  this  time  Franklin  was  a  most  intensely 
loyal  British  subject,  and  gloried  in  the  anticipa 
tion  of  the  future  greatness  and  power  of  the 
British  Empire,  of  which  the  Colonies  formed  no 

62 


BENJAMIN   FKANKLIN 

mean  part.  In  this  respect,  the  Colonists  whom 
he  represented  were  all  of  the  same  mind.  Green, 
in  his  "  History  of  the  English  People, "  says  of 
them  at  this  time :  ' '  From  the  thought  of  separa 
tion  almost  every  American  turned  as  yet  with 
horror.  The  Colonists  still  looked  to  England  as 
their  home.  They  prided  themselves  on  their 
loyalty,  and  they  regarded  the  difficulties  which 
hindered  complete  sympathy  between  the  settle 
ments  and  the  mother  country  as  obstacles  which 
time  and  good  sense  could  remove." 

He  freely  lent  the  aid  of  his  powerful  pen  while 
in  England  to  the  maintenance  of  British  inter 
ests.  In  his  pamphlet,  to  which  great  praise  was 
awarded,  on  the  question  whether  Canada  or  the 
sugar  islands  of  Guadeloupe,  both  of  which  had 
been  conquered,  should  be  restored  to  France  in 
the  event  of  peace,  and  in  which  he  stoutly  main 
tained  the  retention  of  Canada,  he  declared  that 
a  union  of  the  Colonies  to  rebel  against  the  mother 
country  was  impossible.  "  But,"  he  added, 
"  when  I  say  such  a  union  is  impossible,  I  mean 
without  the  most  grievous  tyranny  and  oppres 
sion.  People  who  have  property  in  a  country 
which  they  may  lose,  and  privileges  which  they 
may  endanger,  are  generally  disposed  to  be  quiet, 
and  even  to  bear  much  rather  than  to  hazard  all. 
While  the  Government  is  mild  and  just,  while  im 
portant  civil  and  religious  rights  are  secure,  such 
subjects  will  be  dutiful  and  obedient.  The  waves 
do  not  rise  but  when  the  winds  blow.  What  such 
an  administration  as  the  Duke  of  Alva's  in  the 

63 


BENJAMIN   FKANKLIN 

Netherlands  might  produce  I  know  not,  but  this 
I  think  I  have  a  right  to  deem  impossible. "  When 
Mr.  Pratt,  afterwards  Lord  Camden,  a  stalwart 
friend  of  America  through  all  her  troubles,  said 
to  him,  "  For  all  that  you  Americans  say  of  your 
loyalty  and  all  that,  I  know  that  you  will  one  day 
throw  off  your  dependence  on  this  country,  and 
notwithstanding  your  boasted  affection  for  it,  you 
will  set  up  for  independence,"  he  answered, 
66  No  such  idea  was  ever  entertained  by  the 
Americans,  nor  will  any  such  ever  enter  their 
heads  unless  you  grossly  abuse  them."  "  Very 
true,"  replied  Pratt,  "  that  is  one  of  the  main 
causes  I  see  will  happen,  and  will  produce  the 
event. ' ' 

But  Franklin  was  more  than  a  staunch  loyalist. 
He  was  an  Imperialist  in  the  most  stalwart  sense 
of  the  word,  and  on  a  very  broad  gauge.  His 
biographer,  Parton,  truly  says:  "  It  was  one  of 
Franklin's  most  cherished  opinions  that  the  great 
ness  of  England  and  the  happiness  of  America 
depended  chiefly  upon  their  being  cordially  united. 
The  t  country  '  which  Franklin  loved  was  not 
England  nor  America,  but  the  great  and  glorious 
Empire  which  these  two  united  to  form." 

And  Franklin  himself  wrote  to  Lord  Kames  on 
this  visit:  "  No  one  can  more  sincerely  rejoice 
than  I  do  on  the  reduction  of  Canada,  and  this  is 
not  merely  as  I  am  a  Colonist  but  as  I  am  a 
Briton.  I  have  long  been  of  opinion  that  the 
foundations  of  the  future  grandeur  and  stability 
of  the  British  Empire  lie  in  America ;  and  though, 

64 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

like  other  foundations,  they  are  low  and  little 
now,  they  are  nevertheless  broad  and  strong 
enough  to  support  the  greatest  political  structure 
that  human  wisdom  ever  yet  erected.  I  am,  there 
fore,  by  no  means  for  restoring  Canada.  If  we 
keep  it,  all  the  country  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
the  Mississippi  will  in  another  century  be  filled 
with  British  people.  Britain  itself  will  become 
vastly  more  populous  by  the  immense  increase  of 
its  commerce;  the  Atlantic  Sea  will  be  covered 
with  your  trading  ships,  and  your  naval  power 
thence  continually  increasing  will  extend  your  in 
fluence  round  the  whole  globe  and  awe  the  world." 

Again  he  wrote,  in  1774 :  "  It  has  long  appeared 
to  me  that  the  only  true  British  policy  was  that 
which  aimed  at  the  good  of  the  whole  British  Em 
pire,  not  that  which  sought  the  advantage  of  one 
part  in  the  disadvantage  of  the  others ;  therefore, 
all  measures  of  procuring  gain  to  the  Mother 
Country  arising  from  loss  to  her  Colonies,  and  all 
of  gain  to  the  Colonies  arising  from  or  occasion 
ing  loss  to  Britain,  especially  where  the  gain  was 
small  and  the  loss  great.  ...  I  in  my  own  mind 
condemned  as  improper,  partial,  unjust,  and  mis 
chievous,  tending  to  create  dissensions,  and 
weaken  that  Union  on  which  the  strength,  solidity, 
and  duration  of  the  Empire  greatly  depended; 
and  I  opposed,  as  far  as  my  little  powers  went, 
all  proceedings,  either  here  or  in  America,  that  in 
my  opinion  had  such  tendency. ' ' 

This  first  protracted  stay  in  England  was  evi 
dently  one  of  the  happiest  periods  of  his  long  and 

65 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

useful  life.  For  the  first  time  he  enjoyed  abun 
dant  leisure,  and  the  opportunity  to  indulge  to  the 
full  among  congenial  and  sympathetic  friends  his 
joyous  social  disposition  and  love  of  the  best  com 
pany.  He  made  many  delightful  country  visits, 
and  excursions  to  Scotland,  France,  and  Holland, 
and  greatly  enjoyed  the  recognition  he  received 
in  the  degrees  of  LL.  D.  at  Edinburgh,  and 
D.  C.  L.  at  Oxford.  He  sought  out  the  humble 
birthplace  of  his  father  at  Ecton,  and  worshipped 
in  the  ancient  church  around  which  his  rude  fore 
fathers  slept.  In  1762  he  returned  to  America 
with  regret,  apparently  almost  wishing  to  come 
back  and  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  here.  For  not 
long  after  his  return  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Strahan, 
one  of  the  friends  he  left  behind  him :  "  No  friend 
can  wish  me  more  in  England  than  I  do  myself. 
But  before  I  go  everything  I  am  concerned  in 
must  be  so  settled  here  as  to  make  another  return 
to  America  unnecessary;  "  and  again,  "  I  own 
that  I  sometimes  suspect  my  love  to  England  and 
my  friends  there  seduces  me  a  little,  and  makes 
my  own  reasons  for  going  over  appear  very  good 
ones." 

So  there  was  at  least  a  possibility  that  he  might 
become  a  resident  of  England  for  the  rest  of  his 
life,  and  thus  the  wheels  of  Time  might  have  been 
set  back  awhile,  in  fixing  the  date  of  the  final  sepa 
ration  of  the  American  Colonies  from  Great 
Britain,  which  sooner  or  later  was  obviously  in 
evitable. 

But,  wholly  unexpectedly  to  himself,.  Franklin 

66 


BENJAMIN   FBANKLIN 

was  destined  to  spend  ten  years  more  in  England, 
years  equally  momentous  to  himself,  to  the  Col 
onies  which  he  represented,  and  to  the  Mother 
Country  of  which  he  was  so  loyal  and  devoted  a 
son. 

Hardly  had  he  reached  Philadelphia  on  his  re 
turn  from  his  five  years'  sojourn  here,  when  there 
was  a  new  outbreak  of  the  old  trouble  between  the 
people  of  the  Province  and  the  Penns  as  Pro 
prietaries  of  Pennsylvania  as  to  their  claim  to 
exemption  of  their  property  from  taxation. 
Worse  still,  the  ominous  news  came  from  London 
that  George  Grenville  had  determined  upon  the 
passage  of  the  dreaded  Stamp  Act,  and  thereby 
to  impose  taxes  upon  the  Colonies  by  Act  of  Par 
liament,  in  defiance  of  what  they  claimed  as  their 
immemorial  right  and  usage  to  pay  only  such  in 
ternal  taxes  as  their  own  provincial  governments 
should  impose.  They  did  not  dispute  or  seek  to 
shirk  their  obligations  to  grant  aid  to  the  King, 
and  make  their  just  contribution  to  the  common 
cause,  but  insisted  upon  their  right  to  do  it  in 
what  they  claimed  to  be  the  only  constitutional 
way,  by  the  vote  of  their  own  representatives,  and 
that  taxation  without  representation — .  without 
their  consent  —  was  an  injustice  to  which  they 
would  not  submit. 

No  sooner  did  these  dismal  tidings  reach  Penn 
sylvania,  than  Franklin  was  again  dispatched  to 
London  to  do  the  best  he  could  to  prevent  the  dis 
astrous  measure.  And  what  was  now  of  much  less 
importance,  to  present  to  the  King  the  petition 

67 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

of  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  that  he  would  take 
the  government  of  that  Province  into  his  own 
hands,  they  making  such  compensation  to  the 
Penns  as  should  be  just.  But  of  course  the  ques 
tion  of  the  injustice  of  taxation  without  repre 
sentation  and  contrary  to  ancient  usage,  which 
affected  all  the  Colonies  alike,  swallowed  up  all 
local  issues.  Franklin  arrived  only  in  time  to  find 
that  the  immediate  passage  of  the  odious  measure 
was  inevitable.  He  joined  with  the  agents  of  the 
other  Colonies  in  an  appeal  to  Grenville,  but  all 
their  efforts  were  fruitless.  "  We  might,"  said 
Franklin,  "  as  well  have  hindered  the  sun's  set 
ting.  Less  resistance  was  made  to  the  Act  in  the 
House  of  Commons  than  to  a  common  turnpike 
Bill,  and  the  affair  passed  with  so  little  noise  that 
in  town  they  scarcely  knew  the  nature  of  what  was 
doing. ' ' 

Having  done  all  that  he  could  to  prevent  the 
passage  of  the  Act,  Franklin  was  inclined  to  coun 
sel  submission.  But  public  opinion  in  the  Colonies 
was  obstinate,  and  by  unanimous  action  they  re 
fused  to  obey  it,  or  to  take  the  stamped  paper  on 
any  terms.  To  the  great  disgust  of  his  constitu 
ents,  by  whom  he  was  denounced  as  a  traitor,  he 
went  so  far,  at  the  request  of  the  Government,  as 
to  nominate  a  stamp  distributor  under  the  Act  for 
Pennsylvania.  But  he  and  all  the  other  officials 
under  the  Act  were  compelled  by  the  anger  of  the 
colonists  to  decline  or  resign.  Agreements  were 
signed  everywhere  not  to  buy  any  British  goods 
imported,  and  English  trade  fell  off  to  such  a 

68 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

degree  that  the  new  Administration  under  Lord 
Rockingham,  who  had  opposed  the  Act,  very 
quickly  considered  its  repeal. 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  incidents  of  Frank 
lin's  career  was  his  examination  by  a  Committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  which  was  considering 
the  question  of  repeal.  He  was  summoned  before 
it  to  give  evidence  respecting  the  state  of  affairs 
in  America  —  a  subject  on  which  he  was  better  in 
formed  than  any  other  man  in  the  world. 

Without  passion,  with  perfect  coolness  and  ab 
solute  knowledge,  he  demonstrated  that  the  Act 
was  unjust,  inexpedient,  and  impossible  of  execu 
tion,  and  gave  convincing  proof  that  it  should  be 
immediately  repealed. 

His  testimony  is  one  of  the  most  memorable 
pieces  of  evidence  in  the  English  language,  and 
some  of  his  answers  can  never  be  forgotten.  Be 
ing  asked  what  was  the  temper  of  America 
towards  Great  Britain  before  1763  —  (it  will  be 
remembered  that  the  Stamp  Act  was  passed  in 
1765)— he  said: 

"  The  best  in  the  world.  They  submitted  willingly 
to  the  Government  of  the  Crown,  and  paid  in  their 
Courts  obedience  to  the  Acts  of  Parliament.  They  had 
not  only  a  respect  but  an  affection  for  Great  Britain, 
for  its  laws,  its  customs,  and  manners,  and  even  a  fond 
ness  for  its  fashions  that  greatly  increased  the  commerce. 
Natives  of  Britain  were  always  treated  with  particular 
regard.  To  be  an  Old  England  Man  was  of  itself  a 
character  of  some  respect,  and  gave  a  kind  of  rank 
among  us.  ...  They  considered  the  Parliament  as  the 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

great  bulwark  of  their  liberties  and  privileges,  and  al 
ways  spoke  of  it  with  the  utmost  respect  and  veneration. 
Arbitrary  Ministers,  they  thought,  might  possibly  at 
times  attempt  to  oppress  them,  but  they  relied  on  it 
that  Parliament  on  application  would  always  give 
redress. ' ' 

"  Q.  Can  anything  less  than  a  military  force  carry 
the  Stamp  Act  into  execution? 

"  A.  I  do  not  see  how  a  military  force  can  be  applied 
to  that  purpose. 

"  Q.  Why  may  it  not?  ~ 

"  A.  Suppose  a  military  foreeraent  into  America  they 
will  find  nobody  in  arms.  What  are  they  then  to  do? 
They  cannot  force  a  man  to  take  stamps  who  chooses  to 
do  without  them.  They  will  not  find  a  rebellion:  they 
may  indeed  make  one. 

"  Q.  If  the  Act  is  not  repealed,  what  do  you  think 
will  be  the  consequences? 

"  A.  A  total  loss  of  the  respect  and  affection  the 
people  of  America  bear  to  this  Country,  and  of  all  the 
commerce  that  depends  on  that  respect  and  affection. 

"  Q.  If  the  Stamp  Act  should  be  repealed,  and  the 
Crown  should  make  a  requisition  to  the  Colonies  for  a 
sum  of  money,  would  they  grant  it  ? 

"  A.  I  believe  they  would. 

"  Q.  Why  do  you  think  so? 

t(  A.  I  can  speak  for  the  Colony  I  live  in.  I  had  it  in 
instruction  from  the  Assembly  to  assure  the  Ministry, 
that  as  they  had  always  done,  so  they  should  always 
think  it  their  duty  to  grant  such  aids  to  the  Crown  as 
were  suitable  to  their  circumstances  and  abilities,  when 
ever  called  upon  for  that  purpose  in  the  usual  constitu 
tional  manner. 

"  Q.  Would  they  do  this  for  a  British  concern,  as 

70 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

suppose  a  war  in  some  part  of  Europe  that  did  not 
affect  them? 

"  A.  Yes,  for  anything  that  concerned  the  general 
interest.  They  consider  themselves  a  part  of  the  whole. 

"  Q.  Don't  you  know  that  there  is  in  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Charter  an  express  reservation  of  the  right  of 
Parliament  to  lay  taxes  there  ? 

"  A.  I  know  there  is  a  clause  in  the  Charter  by  which 
the  King  grants  that  he  will  levy  no  taxes  on  the  in 
habitants  unless  it  be  with  the  consent  of  the  Assembly 
or  by  Act  of  Parliament. 

"  Q.  How  then  could  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania 
assert  that  laying  a  tax  on  them  by  the  Stamp  Act  was 
an  infringement  of  their  right? 

"  A.  They  understand  it  thus  —  By  the  same  Charter 
and  otherwise,  they  are  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and 
liberties  of  Englishmen.  They  find  in  the  Great 
Charters  and  the  Petition  and  Declaration  of  Rights 
that  one  of  the  privileges  of  English  subjects  is  that  they 
are  not  to  be  taxed  but  by  their  common  consent.  They 
have,  therefore,  relied  upon  it  from  the  first  settlement 
of  the  Province  that  the  Parliament  never  would,  nor 
could,  by  color  of  that  clause  in  the  Charter,  assume  a 
right  of  taxing  them  till  it  had  qualified  itself  by  admit 
ting  representatives  from  the  people  to  be  taxed,  who 
ought  to  make  a  part  of  that  common  consent. ' ' 

So  clear,  convincing,  and  irresistible  was 
Franklin's  testimony,  that  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act  followed  immediately.  His  evidence  before 
the  Committee  closed  on  the  13th  of  February. 
On  the  21st,  General  Conway  moved  for  leave  to 
introduce  in  the  House  of  Commons  a  Bill  to  Re 
peal  —  which  was  carried.  The  Bill  took  its  third 

71 


BENJAMIN   FBANKLIN 

reading  in  that  House  on  the  5th  of  March.  It 
passed  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  17th,  and  on 
the  18th  of  March,  only  five  weeks  after  Franklin 
had  been  heard,  the  King  signed  the  Bill. 

The  debates  on  that  critical  occasion,  which 
promised  for  the  moment  to  reconcile  England 
and  her  Colonies  forever,  have  been  but  scantily 
reported,  but  Pitt,  in  support  of  the  repeal,  in  one 
of  his  last  speeches  as  the  Great  Commoner,  is 
said  to  have  surpassed  his  own  great  fame;  and 
Burke 's  renown  as  a  Parliamentary  orator  was 
established.  Macaulay  says :  ' '  Two  great  orators 
and  statesmen  belonging  to  two  different  genera 
tions  repeatedly  put  forth  all  their  powers  in  de 
fence  of  the  Bill  (for  repeal).  The  House  of 
Commons  heard  Pitt  for  the  last  time  and  Burke 
for  the  first  time,  and  was  in  doubt  to  which  of 
them  the  palm  of  eloquence  should  be  assigned. 
It  was  indeed  a  splendid  sunset  and  a  splendid 
dawn. ' ' 

Franklin's  own  personal  way  of  celebrating  the 
joyous  event  of  the  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was 
peculiarly  characteristic  of  that  spirit  of  fun  and 
good  humor  which  pervaded  his  whole  life.  He 
made  it  the  occasion  of  sending  a  new  gown  to 
his  wife.  He  wrote  her :  "  As  the  Stamp  Act  is 
at  length  repealed,  I  am  willing  you  should  have 
a  new  gown,  which  you  may  suppose  I  did  not 
send  sooner,  as  I  knew  you  would  not  like  to  be 
finer  than  your  neighbours  unless  in  a  gown  of 
your  own  spinning.  Had  the  trade  between  the 
two  countries  totally  ceased,  it  was  a  comfort  to 

72 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

me  to  recollect,  that  I  had  once  been  clothed  from 
head  to  foot  in  woollen  and  linen  of  my  wife's 
manufacture,  that  I  never  was  prouder  of  any 
dress  in  my  life,  and  that  she  and  her  daughter 
might  do  it  again  if  it  was  necessary.  I  told  the 
Parliament,  that  it  was  my  opinion,  before  the 
old  clothes  of  the  Americans  were  worn  out,  they 
might  have  new  ones  of  their  own  making.  I  have 
sent  you  a  fine  piece  of  Pompadour  satin,  fourteen 
yards,  cost  eleven  shillings  a  yard,  a  silk  negligee 
and  petticoat  of  brocaded  lute-string  for  my  dear 
Sally,  with  two  dozen  gloves,  four  bottles  of  lav 
ender  water,  and  two  little  reels.  The  reels  are 
to  screw  on  the  edge  of  the  table  when  she  would 
wind  silk  or  thread." 

The  repeal,  following  so  closely  as  it  did  on  the 
close  of  Franklin's  examination  as  its  necessary 
sequence,  raised  to  a  very  high  point  his  reputa 
tion  in  England,  where  he  already  commanded 
universal  respect  and  esteem,  and  roused  the 
Colonies  to  the  wildest  enthusiasm  over  his  name. 
His  constituents  in  Philadelphia,  quite  ashamed  of 
their  recent  criticism  upon  him,  gave  him  the 
whole  credit  of  the  great  result. 

Everybody  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  except 
the  King  and  the  "  household  troops,"  as  Burke 
called  them,  hoped  with  him  that  "  that  day's 
danger  and  honor  would  have  been  a  bond  to 
hold  us  all  together  forever.  But  alas !  that, 
with  other  pleasing  visions  is  long  since  van 
ished." 

The  attempt  to  impose  taxation  by  Act  of  Par- 

73 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

liament  on  the  Colonies  was  almost  immediately 
renewed,  and  ushered  in  that  long  and  unhappy 
controversy  which  finally  resulted  in  the  accumu 
lation  of  oppressive  measures  on  the  one  side,  and 
acts  of  resistance  on  the  other,  that  brought  the 
Colonists  to  an  appeal  to  arms  in  defence  of  what 
they  deemed  to  be  their  rights  and  liberties. 

We  will  not  undertake  to  rake  over  the  ashes 
of  the  memorable  contest,  to  measure  out  praise 
or  blame  to  one  side  or  the  other.  Historians 
are  now  happily  agreed  that  the  leaders  on  both 
sides  in  the  great  struggle  were  actuated  by  hon 
est  intentions  and  patriotic  motives.  It  was  im 
possible  for  them  to  see  in  the  same  light  the 
great  questions  of  right  and  of  policy  which  di 
vided  them,  and  which  nothing  but  the  final  sepa 
ration  of  the  Colonies  from  the  Crown  could 
solve. 

It  might  be  claimed  with  some  show  of  reason 
that,  at  the  outset  at  least,  it  was  not  a  contest 
between  the  English  people  and  the  American 
people,  but  between  the  King  with  a  submissive 
Ministry  and  Parliament  here  and  his  subjects 
beyond  the  sea,  and  that  a  great  part  of  the  Eng 
lish  people  had  very  little  to  do  with  it.  If  we 
may  accept  the  statements  of  your  own  most  ap 
proved  historians,  large  portions  of  the  English 
people  were  no  more  represented  in  the  Parlia 
ment  than  the  Colonists  themselves. 

I  may  be  permitted  to  quote  once  more  in  this 
connection  from  Green 's  ' '  History  of  the  English 
People."  He  is  speaking  of  Parliament  between 

74 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

1760  and  1767,  the  very  time  we  have  been  con 
sidering  :  - 

"  Great  towns  like  Manchester  and  Birmingham  re 
mained  without  a  member,  while  members  still  sat  for 
boroughs  which,  like  Old  Sarum,  had  actually  vanished 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  .  .  .  Some  boroughs  were 
'  the  King's  boroughs,'  others  obediently  returned  nom 
inees  of  the  Ministry  of  the  day,  others  were  '  close 
boroughs  '  in  the  hands  of  jobbers  like  the  Duke  of  New 
castle,  who  at  one  time  returned  a  third  of  all  the 
borough  members  in  the  House.  .  .  .  Even  in  the 
counties  the  suffrage  was  ridiculously  limited  and  un 
equal.  Out  of  a  population  of  eight  millions  of  English 
people,  only  a  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  were  electors 
at  all!  " 

What  would  be  thought  to-day  of  great  ques 
tions  of  national  policy  being  decided  by  a  House 
of  Commons  in  which  neither  Birmingham  nor 
Manchester  had  a  representative,  and  in  the  elec 
tion  of  whose  members  only  one  person  out  of 
fifty  of  the  English  people  had  a  vote ! 

At  any  rate,  we  may,  I  think,  exchange  con 
gratulations  to-night,  that  with  our  great  struggle 
the  good  people  of  Birmingham  had  literally 
nothing  to  do,  and  at  least  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  people  of  England  hardly  more. 

But  you  get  an  idea  of  the  vast  difficulties  with 
which  Franklin,  who  gallantly  remained  at  his 
post  in  London  through  all  those  weary  years 
from  1766  to  1775,  had  to  contend,  as  the  repre 
sentative  of  the  United  Colonies,  for,  besides 

75 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

Pennsylvania,  he  was  presently  made  the  agent  of 
Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  and  Georgia.  "  His 
great  powers,"  says  John  Fiske,  "  were  earnestly 
devoted  to  preventing  a  separation  between  Eng 
land  and  America.  His  methods  were  eminently 
conciliatory,  but  the  independence  of  character 
with  which  he  told  unwelcome  truths  made  him 
an  object  of  intense  dislike  to  the  King  and  his 
friends,  who  regarded  him  as  aiming  to  under 
mine  the  Eoyal  authority  in  America."  But  it  is 
not  to  be  forgotten  that  Chatham,  Burke,  Fox, 
Barre,  and  Conway,  all  champions  of  the  cause 
of  the  Colonists,  were  regarded  in  the  same  light 
by  the  same  party. 

And  strange  to  say,  down  to  this  time  Franklin 
had  no  suspicion  that  the  obnoxious  measures  of 
the  Ministry  had  their  origin  or  chief  backing  in 
the  Eoyal  closet.  "  I  hope  nothing  that  has  hap 
pened  or  may  happen,"  he  wrote  in  the  spring 
of  1769,  "  will  diminish  in  the  least  our  loyalty 
to  our  Sovereign,  or  affection  for  this  nation  in 
general.  I  can  scarcely  conceive  a  King  of  better 
dispositions,  of  more  exemplary  virtues,  or  more 
truly  desirous  of  promoting  the  welfare  of  his 
subjects."  "  The  body  of  this  people,  too,  is  of 
a  noble  and  generous  nature,  loving  and  honor 
ing  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  hating  arbitrary 
power  of  all  sorts.  We  have  many,  very  many, 
friends  among  them." 

No  doubt,  however,  he  did  in  the  end  incur  the 
King's  hearty  displeasure;  and  a  story  that  has 
long  been  current  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the 

76 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

royal  mind  at  last  opposed  even  his  views  on 
electricity,  of  which  it  might  have  been  supposed 
that  Franklin  was  himself  king.  The  substance 
of  Franklin's  discovery  was  that  sharp  points  of 
iron  would  draw  electricity  from  the  clouds,  and 
he  recommended  lightning  rods  with  such  sharp 
points.  The  story  is  that  in  the  heat  of  his  ani 
mosity  against  the  Americans  and  Franklin  the 
King  insisted,  on  political  grounds,  that  on  Kew 
Palace  they  should  have  blunt  knobs  instead  of 
sharp  points.  The  question  between  sharps  and 
blunts  became  a  Court  question,  the  Courtiers 
siding  with  the  King,  their  adversaries  with 
Franklin.  The  King  called  upon  Sir  John  Prin- 
gle,  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  for  an  opinion 
on  his  side  in  favour  of  the  knobs,  but  Pringle 
hinted  in  reply  that  the  laws  of  Nature  were  not 
changeable  at  the  Royal  pleasure.  How  far  the 
story  in  detail  is  true  can  only  now  be  guessed 
from  a  well-known  epigram  that  was  actually 
current :  — 

"  While  you,  great  George,  for  safety  hunt, 
And  sharp  conductors  change  for  blunt, 

The  empire's  out  of  joint. 
Franklin  a  wiser  course  pursues, 
And  all  your  thunder  fearless  views, 

By  keeping  to  the  point." 

During  these  ten  years  in  London  Franklin 
kept  up  a  lively  fire  of  pamphlets  and  communi 
cations  to  the  newspapers,  advocating  with  all  the 
resources  of  his  wisdom,  wit,  and  satire  the  integ- 

77 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

rity  of  the  Empire  and  the  cause  of  the  Colonists. 
Two  of  these  — ' '  Eules  for  reducing  a  great 
Empire  to  a  small  one,"  and  "  An  Edict  of  the 
King  of  Prussia  '  -had  a  tremendous  circula 
tion,  and  became,  and  continued  for  many  years, 
very  famous.  He  continued  his  philosophical  in 
vestigations,  and  was  also  the  most  popular 
diner-out  in  London,  where  the  charms  of  his 
conversation  made  him  a  universal  favourite.  He 
maintained  his  intimate  association  with  the  most 
distinguished  men  of  science  and  learning,  and  a 
most  loving  and  constant  correspondence  with  his 
wife,  daughter,  and  sister,  from  whom  his  pro 
tracted  separation  was  to  his  great  and  tender 
heart  a  source  of  constant  anxiety  and  privation. 
But  at  last,  as  the  prolonged  contest  waxed 
hotter  and  hotter,  as  the  representative  of  all  the 
Colonies  he  became  the  very  storm  centre  round 
which  all  the  elements  of  discord  and  growing 
hatred  gathered  in  full  force,  and  was  often  the 
target  for  the  attacks  of  both  sides.  In  England 
the  Ministry  regarded  him  as  too  much  of  an 
American,  and  the  most  ardent  patriots  at  home 
as  too  much  of  an  Englishman.  He  evidently 
thought  that  both  sides  were  in  fault.  Here  he 
constantly  exerted  all  his  great  powers  to  justify 
his  countrymen  and  uphold  their  cause.  To  them 
by  every  mail  he  urged  patience  and  moderation, 
begging  them  to  give  the  Ministry  no  ground 
against  them.  As  Mr.  Parton  truly  says,  "  His 
entire  influence  and  all  the  resources  of  his  mind 
were  employed  from  the  beginning  of  the  contro- 

78 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

versy  in  1765  to  the  first  conflict  in  1775,  to  the 
one  object  of  healing  the  breach  and  preventing 
the  separation. " 

But  at  such  times,  when  the  air  is  charged  with 
mutual  suspicion  and  hatred,  when  forebodings 
of  war  are  agitating  the  public  mind,  what  Hamlet 
says  is  more  true  than  ever: 

"  Be  thou  as  chaste  as  ice,  as  pure  as  snow,  thou  shalt 
not  escape  calumny. ' ' 

The  Court  party  professed  to  regard  him  as  the 
embodiment  of  all  the  alleged  sins  and  offences 
which  they  imputed  to  the  entire  body  of  Colo 
nists,  and  they  determined  at  all  hazards  to  make 
an  end  of  him.  The  news  was  on  the  way  of  the 
famous  Boston  tea  party,  in  which  a  body  of  lead 
ing  citizens  of  the  New  England  capital  in  dis 
guise  boarded  the  ships  that  brought  the  tea,  on 
which  the  obnoxious  duty  had  been  imposed,  and 
emptied  it  all  into  salt  water.  The  whole  harbor 
of  Boston  became  a  seething  cauldron  of  East 
India  Company's  tea  on  which  no  duty  had  been 
paid.  Passive  resistance  was  at  last  breaking 
out  into  open  rebellion.  Probably  the  frenzy  of 
excitement  on  both  sides  had  never  reached  such 
fever  heat  —  and  in  January,  1774,  the  storm 
burst  on  the  head  of  the  devoted  Franklin. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  the  scene  in  the 
Cockpit  at  the  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Lords 
of  the  Privy  Council,  met  to  pass  upon  the  Peti 
tion  of  the  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  Bay 

79 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

for  the  removal  of  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant- 
Governor.  Franklin  had  transmitted  to  the 
Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  as  in  duty  bound,  their 
letters  showing,  as  he  believed,  a  studied  purpose 
on  the  part  of  the  colonial  Royal  officers  to  bring 
down  more  stringent  measures  upon  the  Colonists 
and  to  abridge  their  liberties,  and  he  had  sent 
them,  as  he  was  expressly  authorized  to  do,  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  mitigating  the  wrath  of 
the  Colonists  against  the  Government  at  home 
which,  as  they  believed,  had  initiated  and  was 
solely  responsible  for  those  measures. 

The  hearing  before  the  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council,  on  the  petition  of  the  people  of  Massa 
chusetts  to  remove  these  officers  because  of  the 
letters,  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  ferocious  at 
tack  upon  Franklin,  who  had  presented  the  Peti 
tion.  The  Solicitor-General  overwhelmed  him 
with  vituperation,  while  the  Lords  of  the  Com 
mittee  applauded  with  jeers,  and  cheers,  an  attack 
universally  condemned  ever  since.  His  calm  self- 
command  and  unruffled  dignity,  as  he  stood  for 
an  hour  to  receive  the  pitiless  storm  of  calumny, 
in  such  marked  contrast  to  the  conduct  of  his 
assailant  and  his  titled  applauders,  is  striking 
evidence  of  his  conscious  innocence.  Upon  the 
canvas  of  history  he  stands  out  from  that  ignoble 
scene  a  heroic  figure,  bearing  silent  testimony  to 
the  cause  of  the  Colonists  for  whose  sake  he  suf 
fered —  not  a  muscle  moved,  not  a  heartbeat 
quickened  —  and  casting  into  the  shade  of  lasting 
oblivion  all  those  who  joined  in  the  assault  upon 

80 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

him.  He  said  to  Dr.  Priestley  next  day  that  "  he 
had  never  before  been  so  sensible  of  the  power 
of  a  good  conscience ;  for  that,  if  he  had  not  con 
sidered  the  thing  for  which  he  had  been  so  much 
insulted  as  one  of  the  best  actions  of  his  life,  and 
what  he  should  certainly  do  again  in  the  same  cir- 
sumstances,  he  could  not  have  supported  it. ' '  An 
eye-witness  who  watched  him  closely  says,  "  He 
stood  conspicuously  erect  without  the  smallest 
movement  of  any  part  of  his  body.  The  muscles 
of  his  face  had  been  previously  composed  so  as 
to  afford  a  tranquil  expression  of  countenance, 
and  he  did  not  suffer  the  slightest  alteration  of 
it  to  appear  during  the  continuance  of  the 
speech. ' ' 

He  has  been  blamed  by  several  writers  of  high 
repute,  but  on  what  exact  ground  is  not  definitely 
specified.  From  whose  hands  he  received  the  let 
ters  is  not  known.  He  did  receive  them  confiden 
tially  "  from  a  gentleman  of  character  and  dis 
tinction,"  but  who  he  was  was  a  secret  which,  at 
any  cost  to  himself,  Franklin  was  bound  to  keep, 
and  he  carried  it  to  the  grave  with  him  at  the  cost 
of  all  the  dust  and  obloquy  that  has  been  thrown 
about  the  matter.  Having  come  honorably  into 
possession  of  the  letters,  he  could  not  have  with 
held  the  knowledge  of  them  from  the  leaders  of 
the  Colony  to  whom  he  was  responsible  for  his 
conduct,  without  a  breach  of  trust  towards  them, 
and  his  countrymen,  who  justly  regarded  the  as 
sault  upon  him  as  an  affront  to  themselves,  ac 
cepted  his  own  view  and  statement  of  the  matter. 

81 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  powerful  invectives 
of  Wedderburn,  which  were  extremely  eloquent 
and  ingenious,  and  became  the  talk  of  the  town, 
did  seriously  impair  the  prestige  of  Franklin  dur 
ing  the  rest  of  his  stay  in  London.  On  the  follow 
ing  day  he  was  summarily  dismissed  from  his 
office  of  Deputy  Postmaster-General.  But  all  this 
did  not  deprive  him  of  the  respect  and  esteem  of 
the  distinguished  friends  whom  his  character  and 
commanding  abilities  had  gathered  about  him. 

"  I  do  not  find, ' '  he  wrote  a  fortnight  after  the 
assault,  "  that  I  have  lost  a  single  friend  on  the 
occasion.  All  have  visited  me  repeatedly  with 
affectionate  assurances  of  their  unaltered  respect 
and  affection,  and  many  of  distinction,  with  whom 
I  had  before  but  slight  acquaintance. ' ' 

In  demonstration  of  his  own  fidelity  to  Frank 
lin,  Lord  Chatham  not  long  afterwards,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  great  debate  on  American  affairs 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  invited  him  to  attend  in 
the  House,  being  sure  that  his  presence  in  that 
day's  debate  would  be  of  more  service  to  America 
than  his  own,  and  later,  in  reply  to  a  fling  of  Lord 
Sandwich  at  Franklin,  he  took  occasion  to  declare 
' '  that  if  he  were  the  first  Minister  of  this  country, 
and  had  the  care  of  settling  this  momentous  busi 
ness,  he  should  not  be  ashamed  of  publicly  calling 
to  his  assistance  a  person  so  perfectly  acquainted 
with  the  whole  of  American  affairs  as  the  gentle 
man  alluded  to,  and  so  injuriously  reflected  on: 
one,  whom  all  Europe  held  in  high  estimation  for 
his  knowledge  and  wisdom,  and  ranked  with  our 

82 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

Boyles  and  Newtons;  who  was  an  honor  not  to 
the  English  nation  only,  but  to  human  nature. ' ' 

Franklin  continued  his  efforts  at  conciliation  as 
long  as  he  remained  in  London.  He  actually  ad 
vised  Massachusetts  to  pay  for  the  tea  which  had 
been  destroyed,  for  which  again  he  was  rudely 
blamed  by  the  leaders  in  Boston.  He  even  offered, 
without  orders  to  do  so,  at  his  own  risk,  and  with 
out  knowing  whether  his  action  would  be  sustained 
at  home,  to  pay  the  whole  damage  of  destroying 
the  tea  in  Boston,  provided  the  Acts  against  that 
Province  were  repealed,  and  to  his  last  hour  in 
London  he  labored  without  ceasing  to  heal  the 
growing  breach.  Hostile  critics  have  insinuated 
doubts  of  his  sincerity  in  all  his  efforts  for  peace 
and  union,  but  the  evidence  of  his  fidelity  is  over 
whelming. 

Speaking  of  Franklin  in  London  from  1764  to 
1774,  The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  says,  "  He 
remitted  no  effort  to  find  some  middle  ground  of 
conciliation.  .  .  .  With  a  social  influence  never 
possessed  probably  by  any  other  American  rep 
resentative  at  the  English  Court  he  would  doubt 
less  have  prevented  the  final  alienation  of  the 
Colonies,  if  such  a  result  under  the  circumstances 
had  been  possible.  But  it  was  not. ' ' 

Let  me  cite  another  witness  out  of  a  host  that 
might  be  called:  the  Annual  Register  for  1790 
announcing  Franklin's  death  says  "  Previous  to 
this  period  (the  affair  at  the  Cockpit)  it  is  a  testi 
mony  to  truth  and  bare  justice  to  his  memory  to 
observe  that  he  used  his  utmost  endeavor  to 

83 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

prevent  a  breach  between  Great  Britain  and 
America. ' ' 

Dr.  Priestley,  who  spent  with  him  the  whole  of 
his  last  day  in  England,  says  of  the  conversation, 
"  The  unity  of  the  British  Empire  in  all  its  parts 
was  a  favorite  idea  of  his.  He  used  to  compare 
it  to  a  beautiful  china  vase,  which  if  ever  broken 
could  never  be  put  together  again,  and  so  great 
an  admirer  was  he  of  the  British  Constitution  that 
he  said  he  saw  no  inconvenience  from  its  being 
extended  over  a  great  part  of  the  globe. " 

Professor  Tyler,  in  his  Literary  History  of  the 
American  Kevolution,  describes  Franklin  at  the 
date  of  the  Battle  of  Lexington  as  "  a  man  who 
having  been  resident  in  England  during  the  pre 
vious  ten  years  had  there  put  all  his  genius,  all 
his  energy  of  heart  and  will,  all  his  tact  and 
shrewdness,  all  his  powers  of  fascination,  into  the 
effort  to  keep  the  peace  between  these  two  kindred 
peoples,  to  save  from  disruption  their  glorious 
and  already  planetary  empire,  and  especially  to 
avert  the  very  appeal  to  force  that  had  at  last 
been  made." 

But  Franklin's  efforts  were  of  no  avail.  His 
mission  of  mediation  and  conciliation  had  failed, 
his  dream  of  an  imperial  and  perpetual  union  of 
England  and  the  Colonies,  as  an  Empire,  one  and 
inseparable,  had  vanished.  The  measures  taken 
on  both  sides  rendered  any  reconciliation  impos 
sible,  and  in  March,  1775,  he  sailed  for  home,  to 
throw  in  his  lot  with  his  own  countrymen  —  ar 
riving  at  Philadelphia  two  weeks  after  they  had 

84 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

drawn  the  sword  and  thrown  away  the  scabbard, 
and  the  Battle  of  Lexington  had  begun  the  actual 
War  of  Independence. 

I  have  now  brought  Franklin  to  the  great  part 
ing  of  the  ways,  to  the  point  where  he  ceased  to 
be  a  British  subject  and  became  an  American 
citizen,  bound  now  to  secure  and  maintain  the 
cause  of  the  Colonies  with  all  his  might,  and  as 
loyally  as  he  had  thus  far  sought  to  reconcile  the 
Colonies  and  the  Mother  Country. 

I  may  not  on  this  occasion  pursue  further  the 
narrative  of  his  life,  except  to  indicate  how  clearly 
it  displayed  his  astounding  abilities  and  capacity 
for  public  service,  his  enlightened  patriotism  and 
his  rare  devotion  to  duty.  No  sooner  had  he  ar 
rived  in  Philadelphia  after  his  ten  years '  absence 
than  his  fellow  citizens  deeming  him  more  than 
ever  the  indispensable  man,  made  him  a  member 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  where  he  was  one  of 
the  Committee  of  five  appointed  by  the  Congress 
to  prepare  the  famous  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence,  the  other  four  members  being  Jefferson, 
John  Adams,  Sherman,  and  Livingston.  The 
declaration  drawn  by  Jefferson  was  only  slightly 
amended  by  Franklin,  who  signed  it  with  the  other 
members  of  Congress.  It  will  presently  be  seen 
that  eleven  years  afterwards  he  also  signed  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  he  had  a 
hand  in  making.  To  have  signed  both  of  these 
historical  instruments  is  equivalent  in  American 
history  to  the  highest  patent  of  nobility,  only  five 
others  sharing  the  honor  with  Franklin. 

85 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

But,  in  spite  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
the  cause  of  the  Colonists  was  in  danger  of  be 
coming  hardly  better  than  hopeless  unless  they 
could  secure  foreign  aid  and  alliances  —  and,  who 
again  but  Franklin,  the  printer's  apprentice,  the 
veteran  diplomatist,  the  scientist  of  world-wide 
fame,  the  accomplished  linguist,  the  one  man 
of  letters  whose  works  had  been  translated  into 
many  languages,  and  the  most  experienced  man  of 
affairs  on  the  Continent,  could  be  chosen  for  that 
arduous  and  delicate  service!  He  was  almost  im 
mediately  dispatched  to  Paris  for  that  purpose. 
Although  he  had  now  passed  his  seventieth  year, 
and  was  already  beginning  to  feel  the  infirmities 
of  age,  he  consented  to  serve,  and  there  for  nine 
years  more  of  exile  he  discharged  his  diplomatic 
duties  with  such  wisdom,  energy,  pertinacity,  and 
tact,  and  such  marvellous  shrewdness  that  the 
much  needed  supplies  of  money  and  military 
stores  were  from  time  to  time  obtained  and  the 
Colonists  enabled  to  maintain  their  footing  in  the 
field.  After  the  Battle  of  Saratoga,  which  has 
been  justly  described  as  one  of  the  decisive  battles 
of  history,  the  Treaties  of  Commerce  and  Alliance 
were  signed  which  powerfully  assisted  the  Colo 
nists  to  make  good  their  Declaration. 

This  brilliant  achievement  was  chiefly  due  to 
the  skill  and  sagacity  of  Franklin,  and  it  was 
largely  aided  by  his  marvellous  personal  popular 
ity  among  all  classes  of  the  French  people.  His 
arrival  in  Paris  was  the  signal  for  a  tremendous 
outburst  of  popular  enthusiasm,  which  met  with 

86 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

a  hearty  response  throughout  Europe,  and  it  ex 
tended  at  once  to  the  fashionable  world  and  to  the 
philosophers  and  scholars  as  well  as  to  the  popu 
lace. 

"  His  virtues  and  renown,"  says  Lacretelle, 
"  negotiated  for  him;  and  before  the  second  year 
of  his  mission  had  expired  no  one  conceived  it 
possible  to  refuse  fleets  and  armies  to  the  country 
men  of  Franklin." 

The  German,  Schlosser,  says :  - 

"  Franklin's  appearance  in  the  Paris  Salons,  even 
before  he  began  to  negotiate  was  an  event  of  great  im 
portance  to  the  whole  of  Europe.  Paris  at  that  time  set 
the  fashion  for  the  civilized  world,  and  the  admiration 
of  Franklin  carried  to  a  degree  approaching  folly  pro 
duced  a  lemarkable  effect  on  the  fashionable  circles  of 
Paris.  His  dress,  the  simplicity  of  his  external  appear 
ance,  the  friendly  meekness  of  the  old  man,  and  the  ap 
parent  humility  of  the  Quaker  procured  for  freedom  a 
mass  of  votaries  among  the  court  circles  .  .  . " 

Pictures  of  him  appeared  in  every  window,  and 
portraits,  busts,  medallions,  medals,  bearing  his 
familiar  head  were  in  every  house  and  every  hand. 

A  French  writer  of  the  day,  in  his  description 
of  Franklin  at  the  Court,  says:  "  Franklin  ap 
peared  at  Court  in  the  dress  of  an  American  cul 
tivator.  His  straight  unpowdered  hair,  his  round 
hat,  his  brown  coat  formed  a  contrast  with  the 
laced  and  embroidered  coats,  and  the  powdered 
and  perfumed  heads  of  the  courtiers  of  Ver- 

87 


BENJAMIN   FKANKLIN 

sallies.  This  novelty  turned  the  enthusiastic 
heads  of  the  French  women.  Elegant  entertain 
ments  were  given  to  Dr.  Franklin,  who  to  the 
reputation  of  a  philosopher  added  the  patriotic 
virtues  which  had  invested  him  with  the  noble 
character  of  an  Apostle  of  Liberty.  I  was  present 
at  one  of  these  entertainments  when  the  most 
beautiful  woman  of  three  hundred  was  selected 
to  place  a  crown  of  laurels  upon  the  white  head 
of  the  American  philosopher,  and  two  kisses  upon 
his  cheeks/' 

An  American  Ambassador  of  to-day  still  affects 
similar  simplicity  of  dress  by  Act  of  Congress, 
but  -he  would  hardly  know  how  to  take  such  a 
reception  as  was  thus  accorded  to  the  venerable 
philosopher. 

But  all  this  incense  did  not  turn  his  head,  which 
he  kept  level  for  the  important  affairs  that  he  had 
in  hand. 

The  amount  and  variety  of  business  which  fell 
upon  him  would  have  taxed  the  energies  and 
capacity  of  the  strongest  man  in  middle  life,  and 
his  health  was  already  beginning  to  decline.  He 
was  obliged  to  act  not  only  as  Ambassador,  but  in 
lieu  of  a  Board  of  War,  Board  of  Treasury,  Prize 
Court,  Commissary  of  Prisoners,  Consul,  and 
dealer  in  cargoes  which  came  from  America. 
When  Peace  happily  returned  he  took  an  active 
and  important  part  in  negotiating  the  final  Treaty 
with  Great  Britain,  and  no  one  in  the  world  re 
joiced  more  heartily  than  he  in  the  restoration 
of  friendly  relations  between  Great  Britain  and 

88 


BENJAMIN   FEANKLIN 

the  United  States.  It  would  be  impossible  to  de 
scribe  in  anything  short  of  a  volume  the  activity, 
the  brilliancy,  and  the  success  of  his  long  years  in 
Paris. 

It  was  exceedingly  fortunate  for  both  countries 
at  this  time,  that  in  spite  of  the  intervening  con 
test  of  so  many  years,  Franklin  in  his  important 
post  of  Ambassador  in  Paris  still  retained  the 
esteem  and  friendship  of  many  distinguished 
Englishmen  whose  acquaintance  he  had  made  dur 
ing  his  fifteen  years'  residence  in  London.  To 
two  of  these  —  Lord  Shelburne  and  David  Hart 
ley  —  are  posterity  indebted  for  much  of  the  wis 
dom,  moderation  and  statesmanship  on  the  part 
of  Great  Britain  which  contributed  so  largely  to 
the  Treaty  of  Peace.  The  first  overtures  came 
from  Franklin  to  Lord  Shelburne,  afterwards  the 
first  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  Minister  of  the  Col 
onies,  who  responded  by  sending  a  confidential 
mission  to  Franklin,  with  a  letter  which  concluded, 
"  I  wish  to  retain  the  same  simplicity  and  good 
faith  which  subsisted  between  us  in  transactions 
of  less  importance." 

Presently  Mr.  Fox,  as  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  sent  Thomas  Grenville  over  to  represent 
him  in  the  negotiations.  Great  Britain  then  had 
no  diplomatic  representative  at  the  French  Court, 
and  so  it  came  about,  as  Bancroft  says,  that 
Franklin,  the  Deputy  Postmaster-General,  who 
had  been  dismissed  in  disgrace  in  1774,  now  as  the 
envoy  of  the  rebel  Colonies  at  the  request  of  Great 
Britain  introduced  the  son  of  the  author  of  the 

89 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

Stamp  Act  to  the  representative  of  the  Bourbon 
King. 

The  final  negotiations  of  the  Treaty  on  the  part 
of  England  were  entrusted  to  Franklin's  lifelong 
friend,  Mr.  David  Hartley,  in  whose  apartments 
in  the  Hotel  de  York  the  definitive  Treaty  was 
signed.  The  credit  and  honor  of  the  negotiation 
on  the  American  side  must  be  divided  between 
Franklin,  Jay,  and  Adams,  to  whom,  for  this  great 
service,  their  countrymen  owe  an  incalculable  debt 
of  gratitude. 

At  the  signing  of  one  of  the  Treaties  in  Paris 
Franklin  is  said  to  have  worn  the  same  old  suit  of 
spotted  Manchester  velvet  which  he  had  last  worn 
on  the  fatal  day  at  the  Cockpit  years  before,  when 
Wedderburn  attacked  him,  showing  how  deeply, 
on  that  occasion,  the  iron  had  entered  into  his 
soul. 

In  view  of  his  fifteen  years '  service  in  England 
and  ten  in  France,  of  the  immense  obstacles  and 
difficulties  which  he  had  to  overcome,  of  the  art 
and  wisdom  which  he  displayed  and  the  incalcul 
able  value  to  the  country  of  the  Treaties  which  he 
negotiated,  he  still  stands  as  by  far  the  greatest 
of  American  diplomatists. 

In  his  eightieth  year,  quite  worn  out  by  his 
labors  and  infirmities,  he  returned  to  his  "  dear 
Philadelphia  "  to  spend  the  brief  remnant  of  his 
days,  as  he  hoped,  in  rest  and  retirement,  but  that 
was  not  to  be.  He  was  immediately  elected  Presi 
dent  of  Pennsylvania  —  an  office  of  great  respon 
sibility,  in  which  he  continued  for  three  years. 

90 


BENJAMIN .  FRANKLIN 

"  I  had  not  firmness  enough,"  he  said,  "  to  resist  the 
unanimous  desire  of  my  country  folks;  and  I  find  my 
self  harnessed  again  in  their  service  for  another  year. 
They  engrossed  the  prime  of  my  life.  They  have  eaten 
my  flesh,  and  seem  resolved  now  to  pick  my  bones. ' ' 

In  1787,  at  the  age  of  81,  he  was  a  member  of 
that  remarkable  body  of  men  who  met  to  frame 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  it  was 
most  fortunate  for  the  nation  that  he  was  so.  In 
spite  of  his  great  age,  he  attended  all  the  sessions 
five  hours  a  day  for  four  months,  and  took  an 
active  part  in  the  discussions  and  committees.  He 
it  was  who  proposed  the  amendment  by  means  of 
which  the  States  came  together  to  form  a  more 
perfect  union.  The  small  States  had  been  con 
tending  most  vehemently  and  persistently  for  ab 
solute  and  entire  equality.  The  large  States  were 
equally  tenacious  for  a  proportional  representa 
tion.  Agreement  seemed  impossible  until  Frank 
lin  in  Committee  proposed  the  simple  compromise, 
which  was  adopted,  and  on  which  the  Constitution 
has  thus  far  safely  rested,  that  in  the  Senate  all 
States,  great  and  small,  should  have  an  equal  vote, 
but  in  the  House  of  Representatives  each  State 
should  have  a  representation  proportioned  to  its 
population,  and  that  all  Bills  to  raise  or  expend 
money  must  originate  there. 

He  gave  close  attention  to  all  the  great  questions 
discussed  in  the  Convention,  which  sat  in  secret 
session.  As  he  was  too  infirm  to  stand  and  speak 
he  was  permitted  to  write  out  what  he  had  to  say 

91 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

to  be  read  for  him  by  a  fellow  member,  and  so  it 
came  about  that  his  are  the  only  speeches  reported 
entire,  and  they  are  very  brief  and  pithy.  On  one 
occasion,  when  there  seemed  no  prospect  of  any 
further  progress  because  of  hopeless  dissensions, 
he  moved  that  prayer  be  resorted  to  at  each  day's 
opening  of  the  Convention  as  the  only  remedy. 

"  I  have  lived,  Sir,  a  long  time,"  he  said,  "  and  the 
longer  I  live,  the  more  convincing  proofs  I  see  of  this 
truth :  that  God  governs  in  the  affairs  of  men.  And  if 
a  sparrow  cannot  fall  to  the  ground  without  His  notice, 
is  it  probable  that  an  Empire  can  rise  without  His  aid? 
"We  have  been  assured,  Sir,  in  the  sacred  writings  that 
*  except  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain 
that  build  it. '  I  firmly  believe  this ;  and  I  also  believe, 
that  without  His  concurring  aid  we  shall  succeed  in  this 
political  building  no  better  than  the  building  of  Babel. ' ' 

"When  the  great  Compact  of  Concessions  and 
Compromises  was  finished  it  probably  suited  no 
member  exactly,  so  much  had  each  been  obliged 
to  yield  of  his  own  cherished  opinions  in  the  cause 
of  harmony.  But  Franklin  threw  the  whole 
weight  of  his  influence  in  favor  of  an  uncondi 
tional  signature  of  the  great  instrument  by  all  the 
delegates. 

"  I  consent,  Sir,  to  this  Constitution,"  he  said,  "  be 
cause  I  expect  no  better,  and  because  I  am  not  sure  that 
it  is  not  the  best.  The  opinions  I  have  had  of  its  errors 
I  sacrifice  to  the  public  good.  I  have  never  whispered 
a  syllable  of  them  abroad.  Within  these  walls  they  were 
born  and  here  they  shall  die. ' ' 

92 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

He  carried  his  point  and  all  the  members  signed. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  it  was  the  com 
bined  personal  weight  and  influence  of  Washing 
ton  and  Franklin  that  prevailed  with  the  people 
in  all  the  thirteen  States  in  favor  of  the  adoption 
of  the  famous  Constitution,  which  they  had  done 
so  much  to  devise  and  perfect. 

He  lived  to  see  Washington,  who  had  been  his 
close  friend  and  fellow  laborer  since  the  days  of 
the  Braddock  disaster,  elected  unanimously  the 
first  President  of  the  United  States,  and  to  see 
the  new  Nation,  which  he  had  been  so  potent  to 
create,  fairly  launched  upon  its  great  career.  He 
lived  long  enough  to  see  the  youthful  Hamilton  at 
the  age  of  thirty-two  installed  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  to  read  the  first  report  of  that  mar 
vellous  genius  on  the  Public  Credit  of  the  newborn 
Nation.  His  last  public  act  only  twenty-four 
days  before  his  death,  was  a  powerful  appeal  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  full  of  his  old  wisdom, 
wit,  and  satire,  and  of  the  spirit  which  animated 
the  sublime  proclamation  of  Lincoln  three  quar 
ters  of  a  century  later.  And  then  at  last,  utterly 
worn  out  by  his  long  years  of  public  service,  but 
rejoicing  in  their  grand  result,  he  "  wrapped  the 
drapery  of  his  couch  about  him  and  lay  down  to 
pleasant  dreams." 

His  grateful  country  honors  his  memory  and 
cherishes  his  evergrowing  fame  as  one  of  its 
noblest  treasures,  and  transmits  from  generation 
to  generation  the  story  of  his  matchless  services. 
His  autobiography,  written  near  the  end  of  his 

93 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

wonderful  career,  is  valued  by  all  readers  of  the 
English  language  as  one  of  the  most  fascinating 
contributions  to  its  literature.  And  the  lessons 
of  honesty,  temperance,  thrift,  industry,  and 
economy,  which  he  inculcated  and  practised  with 
such  brilliant  success  in  his  own  person,  have  been 
of  priceless  value  to  his  countrymen,  and  con 
tributed  very  largely  to  their  social,  material,  and 
intellectual  well-being.  So  that,  taking  him  for  all 
in  all,  by  general  consent  they  class  him  with 
Washington  and  Hamilton  and  Lincoln  in  the  list 
of  illustrious  Americans. 


94 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Inaugural  address  March  19th,  1904,  before  the  Associated  Societies 
of  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

REVOLUTIONARY  periods  produce,  if  they 
-tV  Jo  not  create,  men  of  genius  whom  the  ex 
igencies  of  the  times  demand.  Whether  they  are 
bred  out  of  the  conditions  which  create  the  Revo 
lution,  or  always  exist  in  every  community,  wait 
ing  for  the  supreme  summons  to  call  them  forth, 
seems  little  to  the  purpose  to  inquire.  The  ap 
pointed  hour  strikes  and  the  man  appears. 

Napoleon,  the  most  consummate  individual 
force  in  modern  history,  evolved  out  of  years  of 
terror  and  anarchy  to  rescue  a  great  nation  from 
chaos,  will  occur  to  every  one  as  the  most  striking 
example.  Lincoln,  of  happier  destiny,  rising 
above  the  bloody  carnage  of  civil  war  to  save  his 
divided  Country,  by  striking  the  shackles  from 
four  millions  of  slaves,  and  so  converting  the 
doubtful  war  for  Empire  into  a  sublime  and  tri 
umphant  contest  for  Freedom,  seems  to  have 
been  providentially  created  for  that  awful  crisis. 
Going  back  to  the  very  beginning  of  our  young 
Republic  when,  after  all  hope  of  conciliation  with 
the  Mother  Country  was  abandoned,  the  Con 
tinental  Congress  appointed  Washington  as  the 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  American  Army,  to 

97 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

withstand  the  overwhelming  power  of  the  mighti 
est  of  nations,  and  by  his  matchless  patience,  skill, 
and  valor,  to  achieve  the  Independence  of  the 
Colonies,  they  appear  to  have  found  and  selected 
the  one  man  in  all  history  best  qualified  for  that 
most  critical  task. 

In  the  subsequent  making  of  the  new  nation, 
which  the  success  of  .Washington  and  his  com- 
panions-in-arms  at  last  rendered  possible,  there 
appeared  a  considerable  body  of  statesmen, 
trained  in  political  discussion,  tried  by  seven 
years  of  war,  aroused  by  the  four  years  of  an 
archy  that  succeeded,  whose  combined  wisdom 
and  foresight  framed  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  set  in  motion  the  Government 
which  it  called  into  being,  in  a  way  that  to-day 
challenges  the  admiration  and  approval  of  all 
thinking  men.  Foremost  among  these  in  intellec 
tual  brilliancy,  individual  force,  constructive 
capacity,  and  personal  influence  was  Alexander 
Hamilton,  to  whose  character  and  achievements 
I  would  briefly  invite  your  attention. 

Just  a  hundred  years  ago,  in  the  full  career 
and  triumph  of  vigorous  middle  life,  he  was  wan 
tonly  slain  in  a  duel  that  was  forced  upon  him, 
and  which  he  accepted  in  the  spirit  of  false  chiv 
alry  that  then  prevailed;  but  the  work  of  his 
hands  and  his  brain  has  all  the  time  been  growing 
and  his  fame  has  steadily  advanced,  until  to-day 
he  stands,  as  I  think,  next  to  Washington  and 
Franklin  among  the  celebrated  Founders  of  the 
American  Republic.  At  last  even  fiction  has  been 

98 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

busy  with  his  name,  as  if  by  a  sort  of  mystical 
birth  a  miraculous  genius  had  been  created  to  be 
a  conqueror  among  the  men  of  his  time.  But 
truth  is  stranger  than  fiction,  and  the  plain  facts 
of  his  life  constitute  a  romance  almost  as  thrill 
ing  and  fascinating  as  the  pen  of  the  novelist  has 
ever  painted. 

I  shall  not  attempt  a  biography  of  this  extraor 
dinary  man  —  only  a  brief  series  of  biographs, 
rapidly  shifting,  within  the  limits  of  the  pre 
scribed  hour.  Nor  shall  I  try  to  solve  the  myste 
rious  problem  of  his  birth  and  pedigree.  We 
know  that  he  was  born  in  the  little  West  India 
island  of  Nevis,  and  that  his  father  was  a  Scotch 
merchant  who  soon  fell  into  bankruptcy,  and  had 
little  part  in  his  training.  His  mother  was  a 
brilliant  Creole  lady  of  Huguenot  descent,  noted 
for  her  beauty  and  wit,  who  died  in  his  early 
childhood.  Whatever  their  own  misfortunes, 
their  union  was  blest  by  the  birth  of  this  son, 
whose  nature  combined  the  national  characteris 
tics  of  both  most  felicitously  blended  —  a  keen 
and  powerful  intellect,  of  marvellous  precocity, 
a  tropical  and  fiery  energy  which  sustained  a 
soaring  ambition,  and  an  endless  and  untiring 
capacity  for  labor. 

His  early  training  and  education  were  most 
accidental  and  desultory,  and  at  the  age  of  twelve 
he  found  himself  working  for  his  daily  bread  as 
clerk  in  a  local  counting  house.  But  his  talents 
were  not  to  be  thus  hidden  under  a  bushel.  They 
were  discovered  and  known  to  a  few  friends  of 

99 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

his  family,  who  provided  the  means  for  sending 
him  to  New  York  to  be  educated  in  a  way  worthy 
of  his  high  promise  —  and  so  he  was  rescued  from 
the  threatened  doom  of  obscurity  in  a  remote 
corner  of  the  world,  and  transferred  to  what  was 
soon  to  be  the  theatre  of  great  events,  a  fit  arena 
for  the  exercise  of  his  marvellous  faculties. 

At  King's  College,  known  to-day  as  Columbia 
University,  he  more  than  made  up  for  all  past 
deficiencies  by  intense  application  and  prodigious 
labor,  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  studied  the 
course  of  passing  events,  quite  as  ardently  as  the 
prescribed  curriculum.  It  was  a  day  of  stirring 
action;  the  prelude  of  a  historic  political  drama. 
The  quarrel  between  the  American  Colonies  and 
the  Mother  Country  was  reaching  its  crisis.  The 
destruction  of  the  taxed  tea  in  Boston  Harbor 
had  been  quickly  followed  by  the  Act  of  Parlia 
ment  closing  the  Port  of  Boston,  and  the  other 
punitive  measures  designed  to  bring  to  terms 
the  rebellious  State  of  Massachusetts.  These 
measures  had  the  directly  contrary  effect,  to 
rouse  and  unite  all  the  Colonies  in  a  determined 
rally  to  the  defence  of  their  distressed  brethren 
in  Boston.  New  York  alone  held  back;  her  as 
sembly  controlled  by  the  Tories  and  by  the  home 
Government,  declined  to  send  delegates  to  the  first 
Continental  Congress,  and  the  patriots,  as  we  now 
justly  call  them,  convened  a  great  meeting  in  the 
fields  near  the  City  to  give  voice  to  the  popular 
sentiments.  It  was  the  first .  opportunity  for 
Hamilton,  a  stripling  in  the  middle  of  his  eight- 

100 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

eenth  year,  and  he  seized  it  with  startling  avidity. 
A  handsome  youth  of  comely  figure  and  of  clas 
sical  countenance,  intensely  absorbed  in  the  ques 
tion  of  the  hour,  he  listened  in  the  crowd  with 
breathless  attention,  and  as  the  meeting  drew 
towards  its  close,  leaving  untouched  the  thoughts 
that  were  burning  within  him  for  utterance,  lie 
mounted  the  platform  amid  the  inquiring  glances 
of  its  occupants,  who  wondered  who  this  bold 
young  stranger  might  be.  He  proceeded  at  first 
with  faltering  voice,  but  with  ever  growing  cour 
age  and  ardor  to  address  the  excited  audience, 
who  soon  recognized  him  with  shouts  as  "  the 
Collegian!  the  Collegian!  "  and  listened  with 
constantly  increasing  attention  and  delight  to  his 
bold  and  eloquent  exposition  of  the  rights  and 
grievances  of  the  Colonies,  of  which  he  had  made 
a  special  study.  When  that  meeting  adjourned, 
the  young  West  Indian,  utterly  obscure  and  un 
known  before,  was  head  and  shoulders  above  his 
fellows,  already  famous,  and  marked  as  a  future 
leader  of  the  Colonial  Cause. 

From  this  time  he  lost  no  opportunity  to  hold 
and  increase  the  advantage  he  had  gained,  and 
to  impress  himself  upon  the  anxious  and  inter 
ested  community.  In  the  following  year  he  wrote 
and  published  anonymously  two  political  tracts: 
"  A  full  Vindication  of  the  Congress  "  and  "  The 
Farmer  Refuted,"  dealing  with  the  great  ques 
tions  of  the  day,  and  in  reply  to  a  distinguished 
Tory  pamphleteer,  to  whom  he  administered  tell 
ing  blows  and  a  signal  defeat.  His  style  was  so 

101 


r#    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

clear  and  forcible,  his  grasp  of  the  principles  in 
volved  so  comprehensive,  and  his  modes  of 
thought  so  mature,  that  the  pamphlets  were  at 
tributed  to  various  members  of  the  Colonial 
party,  most  eminent  for  wisdom,  experience  and 
commanding  authority.  When  it  came  out  that 
they  were  really  the  work  of  young  Hamilton  who 
had  so  recently  made  the  famous  speech  at  the 
meeting  in  the  fields,  the  impression  of  that  first 
performance  was  greatly  strengthened,  and  men's 
minds  turned  to  him  as  a  leader  already.  These 
papers  showed  much  knowledge  of  history  and 
of  the  true  principles  of  Colonial  Government, 
and  are  worth  reading  to-day  by  the  students  of 
political  science. 

The  actual  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  1775  found 
him  already  a  devoted  student  of  the  military  art, 
and  the  Captain  of  an  Artillery  Company,  which 
he  drilled  with  such  success  as  soon  to  attract  the 
attention  of  leading  generals  to  his  capacity  in 
this  new  direction.  Before  long  he  came  within 
the  observation  of  Washington  himself,  who  made 
him  one  of  his  own  Aides-de-Camp,  his  Private 
Secretary,  and  a  member  of  his  military  family, 
and  so  for  the  four  years  from  March,  1777,  to 
February,  1781,  which  covered  a  very  decisive 
period  of  our  great  struggle,  he  was  in  daily  and 
hourly  contact  with  Washington  as  the  most 
trusted  member  of  his  staff. 

I  know  of  nothing  more  ennobling,  more  in 
spiring,  more  precious  for  an  ambitions  and  as 
piring  youth,  in  the  formative  and  still  plastic 

102 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

period  of  life  from  twenty  to  twenty-four,  than 
such  constant  and  intimate  personal  association 
with  a  truly  great  man ;  and  when  the  young  man 
was  the  ablest  of  his  time,  and  his  master  the 
greatest  man  of  the  age,  perhaps  of  many  ages, 
the  conjunction  was  supremely  fortunate,  and 
here  Hamilton  acquired  a  training,  discipline, 
and  education,  such  as  no  University  could  ever 
give.  He  was  in  close  touch  with  every  important 
event  of  the  period.  He  enjoyed  the  entire  con 
fidence  and  shared  in  large  measure  the  designs, 
anxieties,  and  hopes  of  his  great  master,  and 
especially  his  broad,  comprehensive,  and  far-see 
ing  view  of  the  future  of  the  Colonies  in  the 
event  of  success. 

We  may  not  linger  on  his  military  record,  which 
was  highly  creditable.  One  incident  of  it  cannot 
be  omitted.  He  was  on  the  spot  at  the  time  of 
Arnold's  treasonable  attempt  to  surrender  West 
Point,  and  took  part  in  the  hopeless  pursuit.  He 
was  brought  into  close  contact  with  that  accom 
plished  soldier  John  Andre,  the  unfortunate  vic 
tim  of  Arnold's  perfidy,  and  exhibited  the  most 
touching  and  tender  sympathy  with  his  unhappy 
fate,  laboring  in  vain  to  the  last  moment  to  miti 
gate  the  dread  severity  of  his  sentence.  At  the 
time  of  his  death  Hamilton  wrote  of  him: 
"  Among  the  extraordinary  circumstances  that 
attended  him,  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies,  he  died 
universally  esteemed  and  universally  regretted," 
a  sentiment  echoed  by  many  of  Hamilton's  coun 
trymen  to-day  at  the  sight  of  his  tomb  in  West- 

103 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

minster  Abbey,  where  he  sleeps  among  brave  and 
great  Englishmen.  His  latest  biographer  well 
says :  "  A  sadder  tragedy  was  never  enacted,  but 
it  was  inevitable,  and  no  reproach  rests  upon  any 
person  concerned  except  Arnold."  Andre  dis 
played  the  truly  chivalric  spirit  of  self-sacrifice 
in  the  message  that  he  sent  in  his  last  hours 
through  Hamilton,  that  even  in  the  presence  of 
death,  he  could  not  bear  the  thought,  that  his  be 
loved  Commander-in-Chief,  Sir  Henry  Clinton, 
to  whom  he  was  bound  by  every  obligation  and 
tie  of  affection,  should  reproach  himself,  or  that 
others  should  reproach  him  on  the  supposition  of 
his  having  conceived  himself  obliged  by  Clinton's 
instructions  to  run  the  fatal  risk  he  did. 

Hamilton's  close  connection  with  Washington 
came  to  an  abrupt  and  untimely  end.  Like  his 
great  chief  he  was  a  man  of  towering  passion, 
generally  held  under  strict  control,  but  on  one 
unhappy  occasion  the  sorely  tried  commander  ad 
ministered  a  sharp  reproof  for  some  real  or  sup 
posed  delinquency,  which  the  inflammable  temper 
of  the  subordinate  resented,  and  on  the  spot  he 
resigned  his  appointment,  declining  the  courteous 
overtures  of  Washington  to  re-enter  his  personal 
service.  But  he  continued  in  the  army  and  served 
with  distinction  to  the  end  of  the  war,  conducting 
with  great  gallantry  and  success  one  of  the  prin 
cipal  assaults  at  Yorktown,  which  won  him  con 
spicuous  honor.  Nothing  shows  more  grandly 
the  superior  magnanimity  of  Washington  than  his 
treatment  of  Hamilton  after  the  ill-judged  con- 

104 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

duct  of  the  latter  at  the  time  of  their  quarrel. 
He  had  thoroughly  studied  the  masterly  character 
and  great  qualities  of  the  young  man,  who  was 
less  than  half  his  own  age  at  the  time,  and  had 
learned  to  rely  upon  him  with  absolute  trust, 
which  he  continued  ever  afterwards  to  do,  look 
ing  always  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  for 
political  counsel  and  support,  in  all  the  great 
duties  and  responsibilities  which  were  heaped 
upon  him. 

And  now  the  war  which  had  lasted  for  seven 
years  was  over.  The  Independence  of  the  United 
States  was  achieved.  But  never  was  a  great 
nation,  with  boundless  resources  and  possibilities 
of  wealth  and  power,  in  such  a  hopeless  and  help 
less  condition  —  and  all  for  the  want  of  a  strong 
and  stable  Government,  fit  to  command  obedience 
at  home  and  confidence  and  respect  abroad.  The 
loose-jointed  and  inefficient  Confederation  of  the 
States,  which  had  held  together  under  the  pres 
sure  of  war,  and  had  managed  to  conduct  it  to 
a  triumphant  issue,  was  found  when  peace  re 
turned  to  be  little  better  than  no  Government  at 
all.  It  was  represented  by  a  Congress  of  dele 
gates  without  definite  powers,  without  an  Execu 
tive,  without  a  Judiciary,  and  without  authority 
to  collect  a  dollar  of  taxes  or  raise  a  single  sol 
dier.  It  could  only  make  requests  of  the  States, 
each  one  of  which  might  at  its  pleasure  or  con 
venience  disregard  the  demands  of  their  common 
agent. 

For  the  five  years  that  preceded  the  adoption 
105 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

of  the  Federal  Constitution  the  whole  country  was 
drifting  surely  and  swiftly  towards  anarchy.  The 
thirteen  States  freed  from  foreign  dominion 
claimed,  and  began  to  exercise,  each  an  inde 
pendent  Sovereignty,  levying  duties  against  each 
other  and  in  many  ways  interfering  with  each 
other's  trade.  European  nations  finding  that 
Congress  had  no  power  to  protect  American 
trade,  proceeded  to  impose  fatal  restrictions  upon 
it.  They  also  refused  to  enter  into  treaties  with 
the  United  States  because  they  could  not  tell 
whether  they  were  dealing  with  thirteen  nations 
or  with  one.  This  only  was  sure,  that  Congress 
could  carry  no  treaty  into  effect.  Commerce  was 
completely  paralyzed.  Paper  money  had  done  its 
worst  and  most  perfect  work  by  driving  specie 
out  of  the  country,  and  then  had  itself  become 
worthless.  The  people,  impoverished  by  long 
years  of  war,  were  subjected  to  cruel  sufferings, 
and  were  taking  the  law  into  their  own  hands, 
closing  the  courts  by  mob  violence,  and  at  times 
defying  all  constituted  authority.  American 
ships  were  being  burned  by  Barbary  pirates,  and 
their  crews  sold  into  slavery,  for  the  want  of  a 
Government  that  commanded  respect  on  the  high 
seas. 

"  It  is  clear  to  me  as  A,  B,  C,"  said  Washing 
ton,  who,  from  his  retirement  at  Mount  Vernon, 
watched  the  course  of  affairs  with  the  utmost 
anxiety,  "  that  an  extension  of  Federal  Powers 
would  make  us  one  of  the  most  happy,  wealthy, 
respectable,  and  powerful  nations  that  ever  in- 

106 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

habited  the  terrestrial  globe.  "Without  them  we 
shall  soon  be  everything  that  is  the  direct  reverse. 
I  predict  the  worst  consequences  from  a  half- 
starved,  limping  Government,  always  moving 
upon  crutches  and  tottering  at  every  step."  And 
as  yet  the  States  and  State  Governments,  jealous 
of  each  other  and  of  any  central  authority,  hesi 
tated  and  refused  to  confer  any  adequate  power 
upon  Congress,  which  remained  without  the 
means  of  paying  even  the  interest  on  the  loans 
due  to  its  generous  allies,  and  bankruptcy,  public 
and  private,  threatened  to  fall  like  a  blight  on  the 
whole  land.  The  national  resources  were  ample, 
but  there  was  no  power  to  call  them  into  action, 
and  American  credit  was  dead. 

Meanwhile  Hamilton  had  married  the  daughter 
of  General  Schuyler,  of  New  York,  and  had  vastly 
bettered  his  position  by  this  alliance  with  one  of 
the  oldest  and  most  distinguished  families  of  the 
country.  He  had  studied  law,  and  had  been  called 
to  the  Bar,  always  in  America  the  recognized 
nursery  of  Statesmen.  With  his  known  abilities, 
and  aided  by  the  personal  distinction  he  had  al 
ready  acquired,  he  was  making  rapid  advance 
ment  in  his  chosen  profession  and  in  civil  life, 
where  his  courage  was  as  conspicuous  as  it  had 
been  in  the  field.  A  signal  instance  of  this  oc 
curred  in  his  early  professional  career.  The  leg-  *^S 
islature  had  passed  some  severe  laws  against 
those  who  had  remained  loyal  to  the  British 
Crown,  among  others  a  law,  giving  a  right  of 
action  to  those  whose  property,  abandoned  by  its 

107 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

owners,  had  been  in  the  occupation  of  loyalists 
during  the  war,  under  the  authority  of  the  British 
Commander.  A  great  part  of  the  city  of  New  York 
had  been  so  occupied  for  many  years.  Under  this 
statute  suit  was  brought  by  a  widow,  who  had  been 
ruined  by  the  war,  against  a  rich  merchant  who 
had  occupied  her  house  during  British  domina 
tion,  and  Hamilton,  amidst  the  most  tumultuous 
clamor  for  the  widow's  cause,  took  a  brief  for 
the  defence,  and  threw  himself  into  it  with  all 
the  ardor  and  ability  at  his  command.  He  placed 
his  case  on  the  broad  ground  of  public  law  and 
the  faith  of  Treaties,  and  fairly  persuaded  the 
conscience  of  the  Court,  against  the  tremendous 
weight  of  popular  pressure,  to  set  the  Act  aside. 
In  spite  of  the  temporary  odium  which  this  manly 
act  brought  upon  him,  his  forensic  triumph  placed 
him  in  the  front  rank  of  the  profession  —  and 
there  he  remained  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

But  no  other  interests  could  keep  his  active  and 
patriotic  mind  from  political  thought,  and  from 
the  day  of  his  first  association  with  Washington 
they  had  both  been  of  but  one  opinion,  that  noth 
ing  but  a  powerful  Federal  Government,  with  all 
the  sanction  of  National  Sovereignty,  could  save 
the  afflicted  people  from  the  fearful  dangers  that 
menaced  them.  He  lost  no  chance  by  voice,  pen 
or  personal  influence  to  inculcate  this  fundamental 
truth,  and  many  a  fierce  battle  he  fought  in  de 
fence  of  it. 

At  last  his  great  opportunity  came,  in  1786, 
when  Virginia  called  a  Conference  of  her  sister 

108 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

States  to  meet  at  Annapolis  to  consider  the  com 
mercial  situation.  Only  five  of  the  thirteen  States 
responded,  but  Hamilton  with  a  single  colleague 
was  there  from  New  York,  and,  although  the  im 
mediate  object  of  the  Conference  failed,  the  real 
business  done  by  this  little  band  of  delegates  was 
to  issue  an  address  written  by  Hamilton,  and  sent 
to  all  the  States,  strongly  setting  forth  the  exist 
ing  mischiefs  and  the  only  remedy.  It  urged  that 
Commissioners  be  appointed  by  all  the  States  to 
meet  in  Convention  at  Philadelphia  in  May,  1787, 
"  to  devise  such  further  provisions  as  shall  ap 
pear  to  them  necessary,  to  render  the  Constitution 
of  the  Federal  Government  adequate  to  the  exi 
gencies  of  the  Union." 

Thus  this  young  and  untried  Statesman,  in  his 
thirtieth  year,  was  foremost  in  the  propitious 
movement  for  assembling  that  remarkable  body 
of  men,  who  met  at  Philadelphia  to  rescue  their 
country  from  the  terrible  and  almost  hopeless 
evils  by  which  it  was  encompassed,  and  who  ac 
complished  this  great  result  by  framing  and 
adopting  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
It  has  been  well  described  as  "  one  of  the  most 
memorable  assemblies  the  world  has  ever  seen," 
and  of  its  work  Mr.  Gladstone,  a  not  too  friendly 
critic,  has  said  that  "  as  the  British  Constitution 
is  the  most  subtle  organism  which  has  proceeded 
from  progressive  history,  so  the  American  Con 
stitution  is  the  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck 
off  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and  purpose  of 


man." 


109 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

The  States  responded  to  the  call  with  varying 
degrees  of  alacrity.  Virginia  led  the  way  by  ap 
pointing  delegates"  with  Washington  at  their  head, 
which  in  itself  went  far  to  secure  the  success  of 
the  movement.  After  a  severe  struggle,  which 
was  carried  in  favor  of  the  Convention  by  his 
own  overwhelming  energy  and  persuasive  power, 
Hamilton  was  returned  by  the  reluctant  State  of 
New  York.  But  he  was  handicapped  by  two  col 
leagues  who  were  hostile  to  the  whole  purpose  of 
the  Convention,  and  as  the  vote  there  was  by 
States,  each  State  casting  a  single  vote  by  the 
majority  of  its  delegates,  his  voting  power  was 
nullified. 

Although  Hamilton's  work  in  the  Convention 
was  limited,  it  was  of  a  most  interesting  and  im 
portant  character.  He  formulated  and  proposed 
a  scheme  of  Government,  which  in  many  details 
was  followed  in  the  plan  actually  adopted,  but 
which  in  two  important  features  differed  radi 
cally  from  that. 

He  proposed  a  scheme  much  more  closely  assim 
ilated  to  the  British  Constitution,  which  he  de 
clared  to  be  the  best  model  then  in  existence.  In 
the  place  of  a  Constitutional  Monarchy  he  would 
have  had  a  republic  indeed,  but  an  aristocratic 
republic  based  upon  the  property  of  the  country, 
and  would  have  made  it  supreme  over  the  States 
to  the  extent  of  a  practical  extinction  of  their 
Sovereignty.  The  course  of  events  since  the  close 
of  the  war  had  given  him  a  great  distrust  of  pure 
democracy,  and  a  settled  conviction  that  a  contin- 

110 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

uance  of  the  independent  Sovereignty  of  the 
States,  to  whose  jealousy  he  attributed  a  large 
share  of  the  impending  disasters,  would  be  incon 
sistent  with  the  creation  of  a  strong  central  Gov 
ernment  adequate  to  maintain  the  dignity  and 
safety  of  the  nation. 

To  this  end  he  proposed  that  the  Congress 
should  have  power  to  pass  any  laws  it  thought 
necessary  for  the  general  welfare,  that  the  Presi 
dent,  who  was  to  have  an  absolute  veto,  and  the 
members  of  the  Senate,  should  be  elected  by  the 
votes  of  property  owners  only,  and  should  hold 
their  offices  for  life  or  during  good  behavior, 
being  removable  only  by  conviction  upon  an  im 
peachment  for  some  crime  or  misdemeanor,  and 
that  the  governor  of  each  State  should  be  ap 
pointed  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States, 
and  have  a  veto  upon  all  laws  passed  by  the  State. 

This  novel  scheme  he  supported  in  a  powerful 
address.  With  all  his  logic  and  eloquence,  how 
ever,  he  won  no  support  for  the  special  features 
of  his  plan.  Probably  he  did  not  expect  to  do  so, 
but  undoubtedly  his  earnest  appeal  did  much  to 
confirm  his  associates  in  the  determination  to 
develope  a  strong  and  stable  Executive  and  a 
Federal  Government  which,  in  all  affairs  that  con 
cerned  the  common  welfare,  should  be  actually 
independent  of  the  State  Governments.  His 
scheme  would,  however,  have  annihilated  the 
Sovereignty  of  the  States,  the  preservation  of 
which  within  its  proper  limits  was  an  object  very 
precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Convention.  The 

111 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

moral  effect  upon  his  associates  of  his  appeal  for 
a  strong  and  self-sufficient  government  was  un 
doubtedly  great.  Indeed,  Guizot  says  of  him  that, 
61  there  is  not  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  an  element  of  order,  of  force,  of  duration, 
which  he  did  not  powerfully  contribute  to  intro 
duce  into  it,  and  to  cause  to  predominate. ' '  And 
the  Cambridge  History  of  the  United  States,  the 
latest  authority,  truly  says,  "  Every  great  under 
taking  has  its  master-spirit,  the  Master-Spirit  of 
the  Convention  that  framed  the  Constitution  and 
of  all  that  led  to  it  was  Alexander  Hamilton, 
there  were  other  strong  leaders  who  played  a 
greater  part  in  the  long  series  of  debates,  but 
Hamilton,  present  or  absent,  was  chief  among 
them.  Hamilton  had  already  thought  out  the  idea 
of  a  Constitution,  clear,  definite,  and  strong  to 
withstand  domestic  feuds  and  foreign  greed.  He 
had  thought  out,  and  he  laid  before  the  Conven 
tion,  a  form  of  instrument  which  he  considered 
better  than  any  likely  to  be  adopted;  but  if  he 
knew  that  the  mark  was  too  high,  it  was  still  to 
be  the  mark.  A  Nation  was  to  be  created  and 
established,  created  of  jarring  Commonwealths, 
and  established  on  the  highest  level  of  right. " 

The  Constitution  as  it  was  adopted  by  the  Con 
vention,  has  safely  stood  the  test  of  a  century, 
and  was  the  happy  result  of  four  months'  hot  dis 
cussions  behind  closed  doors,  and  of  successive 
great  compromises  between  sections,  States -and 
individuals.  Hamilton,  in  his  enthusiasm  for  a 
powerful  centralized  Government  which  should 

112 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

dominate  the  States,  had  pronounced  the  Execu 
tive  too  weak,  and  had  declared  that  two  sover 
eignties  could  not  possibly  co-exist  within  the 
same  limits ;  but  the  combined  wisdom  of  the 
whole  body  proved  greater  than  that  of  any  one 
member.  The  Executive  created  by  the  Constitu 
tion  has  proved  to  be  strong  enough  for  every 
emergency,  and  exercises  in  times  of  foreign  war 
or  civil  strife  an  actual  power  quite  as  great  and 
efficient  as  that  of  Kings  or  Emperors  in  monar 
chical  states.  A  dual  sovereignty  was  success 
fully  established,  by  means  of  which  the  Federal 
Government  within  its  sphere  is  supreme  and 
absolute  in  all  Federal  matters,  and  for  those 
purposes  able  to  reach  by  its  own  arm  without 
aid  or  interference  from  the  States  every  man, 
every  dollar,  and  every  foot  of  soil  within  the 
wide  domains  of  the  Eepublic,  leaving  each  State 
still  supreme,  still  vested  with  complete  and  per 
fect  dominion  over  all  matters  domestic  within  its 
boundaries.  Harmony  between  the  two  indepen 
dent  sovereignties  is  absolutely  secured  by  the 
judicial  power  vested  in  the  United  States  Su 
preme  Court,  to  keep  each  within  its  proper  orbit 
by  declaring  void,  in  cases  properly  brought  be 
fore  it,  all  State  Laws  which  invade  the  federal 
jurisdiction,  and  all  Acts  of  Congress  which  tres 
pass  upon  the  Constitutional  rights  of  the  States. 
But  Hamilton,  like  Washington  and  Franklin, 
and  all  the  other  great  patriots  of  the  Convention,  .  .^ 
subordinated  his  own  views  to  the  united  judg-  ^ 
ment  of  his  colleagues,  and  accepted  the  result  as 

113 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

the  best  that  could  possibly  be  got.  Although  as 
he  said,  "  No  man's  views  were  more  remote 
from  the  plan  than  his  own  were  known  to  be, 
yet  it  was  not  possible  to  deliberate  between 
anarchy  and  convulsion  on  one  side,  and  the 
chance  of  good  to  be  expected  from  the  plan  on 
the  other. "  Franklin  urged  the  same  thing  with 
equal  earnestness,  and  with  success.  So  that  when 
the  doors  were  opened,  and  the  members  reap 
peared  with  the  instrument  which  was  the  result 
of  their  long  labors,  signed  by  all,  it  appeared 
as  their  unanimous  act,  supported  by  the  com 
bined  influence  and  character  of  all,  while  all  the 
heated  and  angry  discussions  and  differences  out 
of  which  it  had  grown  were  left  behind  and  not 
disclosed  for  half-a-century  afterwards,  all  the 
members  having  been  sworn  to  secrecy  as  to  what 
took  place  within  the  walls  of  Independence  Hall. 
It  was  one  thing,  however,  for  the  Convention 
to  frame  and  recommend  the  Constitution,  and 
quite  another  to  secure  its  adoption  by  the  people 
of  the  several  States,  which  were  called  upon  to 
surrender  so  much  of  their  power  to  the  Federal 
Government  for  the  general  welfare  of  all,  for  it 
was  to  be  the  Act  of  the  people  of  the  whole 
United  States.  Its  preamble,  which  is  said  to 
have  been  written  by  Hamilton  and  is  the  best 
statement  of  the  objects  of  free  government  to 
be  found  in  any  language,  declares  "We,  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a 
more  perfect  Union,  establish  justice,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common 

114 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  pos 
terity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution 
for  the  United  States  of  America. ' ' 

It  was  in  this  business  of  convincing  and  con 
verting  a  reluctant  people  to  the  acceptance  and 
support  of  the  new  plan  of  Government,  that 
Hamilton  performed  those  prodigious  services, 
and  displayed  that  surpassing  genius,  which  es 
tablished  his  fame  as  the  greatest  Constitutional 
Lawyer  and  Statesman  of  that  eventful  era,  and 
commanded  the  everlasting  gratitude  of  his  coun 
try  and  of  mankind.  For  to  him,  more  than  to 
any  other  one  man,  we  owe  the  grand  result  o1 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  which  brought 
our  young  Republic  into  being  with  organized 
powers  and  internal  resources,  that  have  enabled 
her  to  take  the  place  which  she  now  occupies  in 
the  family  of  nations.  The  immense  weight  of 
character  of  Washington  and  Franklin  inclined 
public  opinion  to  the  support  of  the  measure 
which  they  had  helped  to  frame,  but  the  voice  and 
pen  of  Hamilton  carried  home  to  the  hearts  and 
consciences  of  the  people  the  conviction  that  the 
adoption  of  the  new  Constitution  was  necessary  to 
their  welfare. 

When  the  plan  of  Government  proposed  by  the 
Convention  was  announced,  the  general  sentiment 
of  the  people  was  against  it,  and  a  hostile  majority 
in  many  of  the  States  was  outspoken.  It  encoun 
tered  the  fixed  prejudice  in  favor  of  State  Sover 
eignty  and  against  any  external  government,  as  it 

115 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

was  called,  which  in  the  case  of  British  dominion 
had  proved  so  unpopular  and  disastrous.  Men's 
passions  as  well  as  their  interests  were  appealed 
to,  and  a  bitter  and  violent  anti-federalist  party 
was  organized  in  every  State,  pledged  to  defeat 
the  Constitution  by  all  honorable  means  if  pos 
sible.  New  York,  though  only  the  fourth  or  fifth 
State  in  wealth  and  population,  was  by  its  posi 
tion,  which  completely  separated  New  England 
from  the  Southern  States,  absolutely  indispen 
sable  to  the  new  Union,  and  her  people,  led  by  a 
Governor  "  with  consummate  talents  for  popu 
larity,"  were  more  emphatically  opposed  to  it 
than  those  of  any  other  State. 

But  the  choice  was  between  the  new  Constitu 
tion  and  anarchy,  and  Hamilton  conceived  the  idea 
of  a  regularly  organized  campaign  of  education, 
to  open  the  minds  and  to  instruct  the  consciences 
of  the  people  on  the  great  question  which  involved 
their  rights  and  liberties  as  well  as  their  interests. 
This  should  be  done  by  a  consecutive  and  inces 
sant  series  of  papers  addressed  to  the  people, 
presenting  the  general  constitutional  principles 
involved,  discussing  and  analyzing  the  new  Con 
stitution,  chapter  by  chapter,  clause  by  clause, 
and  pointing  out,  as  to  each,  the  defects  of  the 
existing  confederation,  the  consequent  evils  and 
mischiefs  under  which  they  were  laboring,  and 
the  remedies  offered  by  the  work  of  the  Conven 
tion. 

He  enlisted  the  willing  and  sympathetic  aid  of 
Madison,  who  had  had  much  more  to  do  than  him- 

116 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

self  with  the  framing  of  the  plan  proposed,  and 
of  Jay,  the  acknowledged  leader  among  American 
jurists,  who  afterwards  became  the  first  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States.  They  contributed 
many  of  the  papers,  and  their  reputation,  charac 
ter,  and  experience  gave  great  authority  to  the 
work,  but  a  major  portion  of  it  was  indisputably 
from  Hamilton's  own  pen.  The  combined  result 
is  known  as  "  The  Federalist,77  the  book  which  is 
thought  by  many  competent  authorities  to  be  the 
greatest  book  that  America  has  given  to  the 
world,  and  which  certainly  ranks  very  high  among 
works  on  constitutional  law  and  principles  the 
world  over.  It  remains  to  this  day  the  highest 
authority  in  the  Courts  of  the  United  States,  and 
of  other  countries,  on  the  construction  and  mean 
ing  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  intentions  of  its 
framers,  and  should  be  read  by  every  student  who 
wishes  to  understand  the  principles  which  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  popular  government. 

Hamilton  wrote  the  first  paper  by  the  light  of 
a  candle,  while  floating  down  from  Albany  to  New 
York  in  the  cabin  of  the  primitive  passenger 
schooner  of  those  days,  and  the  other  numbers 
followed  in  quick  succession,  one  in  every  two  or 
three  days.  They  covered  the  whole  field  of  con 
stitutional  and  public  law,  and  the  meaning  and 
purpose  of  every  clause  was  made  clear  to  the 
people.  The  writers  spoke  from  full  minds  and 
full  hearts.  The  papers  were  widely  circulated 
and  universally  read,  and  are  pronounced  by  com 
petent  historians  to  have  had  more  to  do  than 

117 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

any  other  cause  with  convincing  the  people 
throughout  the  country  that  their  safety  and  wel 
fare  depended  upon  the  adoption  of  the  new  form 
of  Government  proposed.  For  clear  and  cogent 
reasoning,  plainness  and  simplicity  of  thought, 
earnestness  of  purpose,  and  purity  of  diction  and 
literary  style,  I  know  of  no  American  book  that 
surpasses  "  The  Federalist,"  and  no  student  of 
constitutional  or  public  law  can  do  without  it. 
The  chief  credit  of  the  work,  for  its  origin,  its 
successful  prosecution  and  its  great  merit  may, 
without  any  detraction  from  the  valuable  contri 
bution  of  his  associates,  be  awarded  to  Hamilton. 

The  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  24,  says:  —  "  The 
Federalist,  written  principally  by  Hamilton,  ex 
hibits  an  extent  and  precision  of  information,  a 
profundity  of  research,  and  an  accurateness  of 
understanding,  which  would  have  done  honor  to 
the  most  illustrious  statesmen  of  ancient  or  mod 
ern  times." 

But  New  York,  his  own  State,  still  hung  back, 
and  New  York  was  still  the  pivot  on  which  the 
whole  of  this  political  enterprise  turned,  and  there 
the  chances  seemed  desperate  indeed.  The  Oppo 
sition  Party  supported  by  the  most  formidable 
interests  were  in  a  large  majority,  and  determined 
to  defeat  it  at  all  hazards.  They  preferred  that 
New  York  should  stand  alone,  and  enjoy,  to  the 
exclusion  of  its  sister  States,  the  immense  advan 
tages  of  its  splendid  harbor  and  its  prospective 
commerce.  Hamilton  and  Jay  and  their  associ 
ates  succeeded  in  forcing  the  calling  of  a  Conven- 

118 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

tion  to  consider  the  matter.  But  when  it  met 
forty-six  out  of  the  sixty-five  members  present 
were  pronounced  anti-federalists,  with  the  stal 
wart  and  hard-headed  Governor  at  their  head,  and 
in  the  chair.  Hamilton,  leading  the  forlornly 
hopeless  minority  of  nineteen,  had  an  opportunity 
to  show  his  points  as  a  debater,  and  after  a  pro-  \^^ 
tracted  struggle  he  won  a  parliamentary  victory 
such  as  has  rarely  been  heard  of  in  the  annals  of 
any  legislative  body.  Day  after  day  and  week 
after  week,  he  maintained  the  contest  almost  sin 
gle  handed.  He  was  superbly  equipped  for  such 
a  hand-to-hand  fight.  His  experience  with  Wash 
ington,  and  subsequently  in  Congress,  in  the  two 
Conventions,  in  the  legislature  and  at  the  Bar,  his 
strong  and  penetrating  intellect,  his  fiery  energy 
and  absolute  conviction,  made  him  an  irresistible 
champion  at  close  quarters.  Clearness,  force,  and  *, 
earnestness  were  the  characteristics  of  his  elo-  j\ 
quence;  he  had  an  answer  for  every  objection, 
and  made  every  blow  tell.  And  at  last  he  carried 
the  enemy's  works  by  assault,  just  as  he  had 
stormed  the  battery  at  Yorktown. 

The  leader  of  the  Governor's  party  ran  up  the 
white  flag,  and  announced  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  that  Hamilton's  arguments  had  convinced 
him,  and  the  victory  was  won  —  the  Convention 
ratifying  the  Constitution  by  a  vote  of  30  to  27. 
Thus  New  York  was  the  eleventh  State  to  ratify, 
nine  only  being  required.  By  this  time  the  whole 
country  was  convinced,  for  nothing  succeeds  like 
success.  Rejoicing  was  universal,  and  Hamilton's 

119 


ALEXANDEE   HAMILTON 

name  was  on  every  tongue.    In  the  great  proces 
sion  in  New  York  to  celebrate  the  glad  event,  the 
great  Ship  of  State,  the  emblematic  Federal  Ship, 
which  was  drawn  through  the  streets,  was  em 
blazoned  all  over  with  the  name  of  "  Hamilton  " 
/in  his  honor.     This  universal  recognition  of  his 
j/    service  and  triumph  must  have  made  him  the 
happiest  and  proudest  man  in  America,  and  he 
was  still  but  thirty  years  old. 

Great  as  was  the  service  rendered  by  Hamilton 
in  securing  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  it 
was,  however,  equalled  in  importance  by  the  part 
which  he  took  in  organizing  the  new  Government 
under  it,  in  restoring  the  public  credit,  and  in 
devising  the  policy  which  was  to  shape  the  future 
fortunes  of  the  infant  nation,  and  here  he  devel 
oped  a  versatility  of  talent,  and  a  constructive 
capacity,  almost  without  a  precedent. 
/"'''The  first  Presidential  election  had  resulted  in 
the  unanimous  election  of  Washington,  "  first  in 
war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen. ' '  No  greater  responsibility  ever 
rested  upon  any  ruler  than  that  of  organizing  the 
machinery  of  the  new  administration,  so  as  to 
secure  success  to  the  novel  experiment  of  free 
government.  Of  all  the  famous  statesmen  in  the 
land,  whom  should  he  choose  as  his  most  confiden 
tial  adviser  and  chief  assistant  in  this  arduous 
work!  "Whom  but  the  still  youthful  Hamilton, 
who,  at  the  age  of  thirty^wp,  was  made  the  first 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States, 
with  the  approval  of  the  whole  country,  for  his 

120 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

thorough  fitness  in  character,  capacity,  power  of 
sustained  labor  and  generous  enthusiasm  were 
universally  recognized.  The  appointment  was 
more  than  justified,  for  he  still  stands  by  far  our 
greatest  Finance  Minister,  with  whom  we  may 
safely  challenge  any  comparison.  It  was  not  mere 
language  of  rhetoric,  but  literal  truth  when  Web 
ster,  borrowing  the  imagery  of  two  famous  mira 
cles,  said  of  him,  "  He  smote  the  rock  of  our 
national  resources  and  abundant  streams  of  rev 
enue  gushed  forth.  He  touched  the  dead  corpse 
of  public  credit  and  it  sprang  upon  its  feet." 

The  labors  of  Hercules  were  light  in  compari 
son  with  those  that  fell  upon  the  new  Secretary. 
He  came  to  an  empty  Treasury,  with  literally  not 
a  penny  in  the  till.  There  was  no  credit,  public 
or  private.  There  were  as  yet  no  laws  providing 
for  the  exercise  of  the  powers  conferred  by  the 
Constitution.  There  had  been  no  attempt  as  yet 
to  develope  the  resources  of  the  country,  which 
have  since  proved  to  be  so  inexhaustible  —  busi 
ness  was  at  a  standstill  waiting  upon  events. 
Above  all,  and  casting  a  heavy  cloud,  a  fearful 
incubus  upon  the  hopes  and  prospects  of  the  new 
Government  just  struggling  into  life,  there  was 
a  vast  national  debt  of  eighty  million  dollars,— 
an  insignificant  sum  to  our  modern  view,  but  then 
of  appalling  dimensions,  and  there  were  no  means 
at  hand  with  which  to  pay  the  principal  or  even 
the  interest  upon  it. 

After  organizing  the  necessary  financial  ma 
chinery  of  the  Treasury,  in  a  way  that  has  lasted 

121 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

to  the  present  time,  he  produced  in  rapid  succes 
sion  his  three  able  reports  on  Public  Credit,  on 
National  Banking  and  on  Manufactures,  and 
thereby  laid  the  deep  and  solid  foundations,  upon 
which  the  public  credit,  the  financial  system,  and 
the  public  and  private  prosperity  of  the  United 
States  were  built  up.  They  contained  the  germs 
from  which  have  been  developed  our  distinctive 
American  method  of  government,  which  still  bears 
the  stamp  of  Hamilton's  strong  intellect  and  per 
sonality. 

He  based  his  scheme  of  public  credit  upon  abso 
lute  good  faith,  upon  a  punctualjperf ormance_  of 
every  obligation,  on  which  alone  he  insisted  the 
prosperity  of  the  Nation  could  safely  rest. 
"  States,  like  individuals,"  he  said,  "  who  re 
spect  their  engagements  are  respected  and  trusted, 
while  the  reverse  is  true  of  those  who  pursue  an 
opposite  conduct."  And  he  stated  the  object  of 
his  policy  to  be:  "To  justify  and  preserve  the 
confidence  of  the  most  enlightened  friends  of  good 
government;  to  promote  the  increasing  respect 
ability  of  the  American  name ;  to  answer  the  calls 
of  justice;  to  restore  landed  property  to  its  due 
value;  to  furnish  new  resources  both  to  agricul 
ture  and  commerce;  to  cement  more  closely  the 
Union  of  the  States;  to  add  to  their  security 
against  foreign  attack;  to  establish  public  order 
on  the  basis  of  an  upright  and  liberal  policy." 

For  these  sacred  purposes  he  insisted  upon 
sufficient  revenue  by  taxation  to  provide  for  the 
prompt  payment  of  all  public  obligations,  and  to 

122 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

furnish  an  adequate  currency  —  upon  a  Funding 
System  which  should  embrace  the  whole  of  the 
existing  debt,  recognized  as  to  be  paid  in  full  how 
ever  depreciated,  to  the  lawful  holders  —  and 
upon  the  assumption  by  the  Nation,  of  all  the 
debts  that  had  been  incurred  by  the  States  in 
carrying  on  the  war  which  brought  the  Nation 
into  being. 

These  important  measures  were  not  carried 
without  violent  and  formidable  opposition,  and 
required  the  exertion  by  Hamilton  of  all  his  power 
and  influence,  both  as  Minister  and  politician. 
The  public  debt,  which  was  large,  and  had  been 
accumulating  from  the  beginning  of  the  War  of 
the  Revolution,  was  of  three  classes.  First,  that 
which  was  due  to  Foreign  Nations  —  to  France, 
Spain,  and  Holland,  for  loans  and  advances. 
This  it  was  generally  agreed  must  be  paid  in  full, 
principal  and  interest.  Second,  that  which  was 
due  to  domestic  creditors,  represented  by  bills  or 
obligations  issued  from  time  to  time,  and  which 
had  greatly  depreciated,  as  the  paper  money  had 
done.  So  that  the  first  taker,  who  had  received 
it  from  the  Government  at  its  face  value,  had 
parted  with  it  at  a  discount,  and  the  last  taker, 
who  was  the  present  holder,  had  paid  but  a  small 
percentage  of  its  par  value.  •  As  to  these  there 
was  a  violent  controversy,  the  opponents  of  Ham 
ilton's  plan  insisting  that  the  present  holder 
should  be  paid  only  what  he  gave  for  it,  and  any 
further  payments  go  to  the  previous  holders. 
But  Hamilton  stoutly  and  successfully  insisted 

123 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

that  as  the  agreement  of  the  Government  in  each 
case  had  been  to  pay  the  whole  amount  to  the 
first  taker  or  his  assignees,  the  credit  of  the  Na 
tion  required  that  this  agreement  should  be  kept 
in  the  strictest  good  faith  and  the  actual  holder 
receive  the  whole. 

On  the  question  of  the  assumption  by  the  new 
Nation  of  the  outstanding  debts  of  the  States 
there  was  a  still  more  bitter  controversy,  which 
involved  the  jealousy  existing  between  the 
States;  —  but  Hamilton,  who  believed  that  the 
stability  of  the  new  Government  depended  very 
much  upon  enlisting  the  capital  and  the  capitalists 
of  the  country  in  its  support,  insisted  successfully 
upon  Assumption,  and  by  this  and  the  previous 
measure  he  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  Govern 
ment  those  who,  as  he  believed,  could  render  it 
the  most  efficient  aid  and  influence,  and  established 
its  credit  on  a  lasting  foundation.  Its  new  funded 
debt,  into  which  these  obligations  were  converted, 
rose  to  par  and  more,  and  was  always  met  at 
maturity. 

In  his  report  on  Banking,  which  was  a  very 
great  and  powerful  constitutional  and  legal  argu 
ment,  he  laid  the  foundations  upon  which  have 
safely  rested  all  the  plans  of  National  Banks  that 
have  from  time  to  time  been  adopted  by  Congress, 
and  our  present  excellent  system  of  National 
Banks,  so  stable  and  uniform  in  its  operation  in 
all  parts  of  the  Union.  Here,  too,  he  rendered 
a  still  more  broad  and  signal  service,  in  first  set 
ting  forth  in  clear  and  convincing  terms  the  theory 

124 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

of  implied  powers  and  resulting  powers  vested  in 
the  National  Government  under  the  Constitu 
tion  —  the  theory  that  every  power  clearly  given 
involves  necessarily  the  right  in  Congress  to  use 
every  necessary  and  proper  means  to  carry  that 
power  into  execution.  In  other  words,  he  was  the 
author  of  the  doctrine  of  liberal  construction, 
which  has  enabled  the  Supreme  Court  from  time 
to  time  to  adopt  and  apply  the  general  provisions 
of  the  Constitution,  as  its  framers  intended,  to 
successive  national  exigencies  as  they  arose, 
whereby  that  venerated  instrument  has  grown 
with  the  growth  of  the  nation,  instead  of  being 
left  behind  and  discarded  as  an  outworn  garment 
rent  asunder  at  every  seam. 

His  report  on  Manufactures,  the  third  of  these 
great  State  papers,  is  still  more  remarkable. 
Taking  the  ground  that  Manufactures  were  as 
essential  to  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  country 
as  Commerce  and  Agriculture,  and  should  there 
fore  be  equally  encouraged  and  developed,  he 
presents  the  whole  subject  in  a  broad,  compre 
hensive  and  truly  National  spirit,  setting  forth 
both  sides  of  the  question  as  clearly  and  strongly 
as  possible,  and  evincing  a  deep  knowledge  of  the 
principles  of  political  economy  and  of  the  science 
of  taxation.  This  paper  did  not,  like  the  others 
that  have  been  referred  to,  result  in  immediate 
legislation,  but  it  was  in  pursuance  of  his  great 
National  purpose  that  the  United  States  should 
as  rapidly  as  possible  make  themselves  independ 
ent  of  all  foreign  control  or  interference,  and  it 

125 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

is  so  full  and  perfect  a  presentation  of  the  general 
subject,  that  it  will  always  be  worthy  of  careful 
study,  from  whatever  side  the  question  may  be 
approached.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  not  much  has 
been  added  to  the  argument  on  either  side  since 
this  Keport  was  published. 

These  great  subjects,  important  and  fundamen 
tal  as  they  were,  were  not  the  only  ones  that 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  youthful  Secretary 
at  the  outset  of  the  new  Government.  Congress, 
earnestly  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  legislation 
necessary  for  calling  into  effective  action  the  vast 
and  varied  powers  conferred  by  the  Constitution, 
was  continually  calling  upon  him  for  advice  and 
reports,  which  he  gave  with  wonderful  ease  and 
versatility,  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  within 
and  without  his  own  department.  He  was  also 
during  the  first  five  years  of  the  Administration 
of  Washington,  the  chief  political  adviser  of  the 
/  President,  who  relied  upon  him  in  every  emer 
gency,  and  whose  arms  he  upheld,  on  every  great 
question  of  public  policy. 

The  aim  of  Hamilton's  efforts  from  first  to 
last  was  to  create  a  strong  and  independent  Gov 
ernment,  in  full  possession  of  all  the  powers  that 
by  reasonable  construction  it  could  derive  from 
the  Constitution;  to  establish  the  credit  of  the 
Nation  upon  the  impregnable  basis  of  absolute 
good  faith,  to  develope  all  its  resources  as  rapidly 
as  possible,  and  to  hold  fast  to  its  support, 
through  a  strong  spirit  of  Nationality,  all  the 
strongest  men  and  most  powerful  interests  in  the 

126 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

land.  By  his  untiring  labors,  and  by  the  com 
manding  influence  which  he  acquired  and  exer 
cised  to  these  noble  ends,  he  stamped  the  impress 
of  his  character  and  personality  upon  the  National 
history,  and  is  entitled  to  a  full  share  of  that  glory 
which  mankind  awards  to  the  founders  of  great 
States.  As  the  Republic  which  he  helped  so  ef 
ficiently  to  bring  into  being  and  to  place  upon  its 
feet,  expands  and  grows,  his  fame  grows  with  it, 
and  will  last  as  long  as  the  Nation  endures.  Jlis 
name  will  be  always  identified  with  the  strength, 
the  sgTeMor,  and  the  purity  of  Washington's 
Administration. 

Senator  Lodge,  his  biographer,  has  truly  said 
of  him:  "  As  time  has  gone  on,  Hamilton's  fame 
has  grown,  and  he  stands  to-day  as  the  most 
brilliant  statesman  we  have  produced.  His  con 
structive  mind  and  far  reaching  intellect  are  vis 
ible  in  every  part  of  our  system  of  government 
which  is  the  best  and  noblest  monument  of  his 
genius. ' ' 

It  is  quite  impossible  to  form  a  just  estimate 
of  the  value  and  efficiency  of  Hamilton  's  ideas  and 
labors  in  promoting  the  adoption  of  the  Consti 
tution,  and  in  the  legislation  of  "Washington's 
Administration,  without  taking  a  general  view  of 
the  condition  of  affairs  at  the  close  of  that  period, 
and  contrasting  it  with  that  which  existed,  as  we 
have  seen,  at  its  commencement. 

Instead  of  a  powerless  league  of  States,  held 
together  by  Articles  of  Confederation  which  have 
been  aptly  described  as  "  a  rope  of  sand,"  a 

127 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

young,  vigorous  and  ambitious  Nation  had  been 
created,  with  a  Government  fully  organized, 
armed  and  equipped  for  all  national  purposes, 
with  the  most  illustrious  man  in  the  world  at  its 
head,  whose  character  commanded  universal  re 
spect,  confidence  and  admiration,  at  home  and 
abroad.  In  its  hands  had  been  placed  full  and 
adequate  powers  of  taxation,  by  which  every  form 
of  property,  occupation,  and  industry  could  be 
reached,  and  compelled  to  contribute  to  all  those 
purposes  which  involved  the  general  welfare  of 
the  people  of  all  the  States ;  to  internal  adminis 
tration  and  the  support  of  a  judicial  establish 
ment  ;  to  foreign  relations ;  to  the  building  of  a 
Navy;  to  the  organizing  and  equipment  of 
Armies;  to  the  regulation  of  Commerce;  and  to 
carrying  out  the  provisions  of  Treaties.  The 
Nation  could  now,  if  need  be,  without  aid  from 
the  States,  draw  into  its  military  service  every 
able-bodied  man  within  the  bounds  of  the  Repub 
lic. 

It  left  untouched  all  those  powers  of  the 
States,  which  were  essential  to  the  proper  conduct 
of  domestic  affairs,  and  at  the  same  time  effec 
tually  restrained  them  from  the  exercise  of  those 
which  would  interfere  with  the  independence  and 
efficiency  of  the  general  government.  They  could 
no  longer  levy  imposts  upon  imports  from  abroad 
or  from  any  of  the  other  States.  The  citizens  of 
each  State  were  secured  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  every 
other  State.  Absolute  freedom  of  trade  within 

128 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

the  Republic  was  established,  which,  in  connection 
with  the  unlimited  power  to  regulate  Commerce 
with  foreign  nations  and  the  absolute  control  of 
all  external  relations,  has  vastly  contributed  to 
the  general  prosperity  of  the  Nation.  The  States 
were  also  prohibited  from  passing  any  laws  im 
pairing  the  obligation  of  contracts,  a  provision 
which  gave  great  security  and  stability  both  to 
property  and  business.  It  put  an  end  for  ever 
to  interference  between  creditor  and  debtor,  of 
which  some  of  the  States  had  been  guilty,  and 
has  done  much  to  maintain  the  sanctity  of  con 
tracts  and  of  property. 

With  such  a  Government  the  new  born  Nation 
could  meet  and  confront  other  Nations  on  equal 
terms.  It  could  make  Treaties,  with  the  assur 
ance  to  itself  and  to  the  other  party  that  the 
terms  of  the  Treaty  would  be  faithfully  executed. 
It  was  no  longer  looked  upon  with  contempt,  or 
even  with  indifference,  by  other  Powers  as  it  had 
been  before,  but  took  its  place  as  an  equal  in  the 
family  of  Nations. 

The  people  gradually  learned  to  outgrow  the 
feeling  of  pupilage  and  dependence  upon  a  foreign 
nation  and  on  foreign  opinion,  which  had  charac 
terized  them  as  Colonists.  In  its  place  they  ac 
quired  a  new  spirit  of  Nationality,  proud  of  their 
new  liberties  and  rejoicing  in  the  strength  of  a 
Union,  which,  as  they  believed,  was  destined  to 
be  perpetual.  Confidence  and  Commerce  revived, 
and  the  busy  hum  of  Industry  was  everywhere 
heard.  An  ample  revenue  flowed  into  the  public 

129 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

coffers,  and  the  public  funds  and  the  national 
currency  were  placed  upon  a  firm  basis.  The 
great  national  domain  extending  from  the  Al- 
leghanies  to  the  Mississippi  was  thrown  open  to 
immigration,  and  a  resistless  and  incessant  tide 
of  life  began  to  flow  through  every  mountain  pass 
and  along  every  river  bed,  eager  to  possess  and 
subdue  the  forest  and  the  wilderness,  and  convert 
them  into  one  great  garden  of  plenty. 

I  doubt  whether  in  such  narrow  limits  of  time, 
a  change  in  the  form  of  Government  and  the 
adoption  of  a  new  system  of  Administration  ever 
wrought  such  magical  effects.  A  wholly  new 
people  entered  upon  the  great  and  untried  ex 
periment  of  Self  Government,  with  the  most  buoy 
ant  hopes  and  sanguine  expectations. 

An  opportunity  soon  came  for  testing  the 
power  of  the  new  Government  against  domestic 
turbulence  and  disorder,  and  of  trying  the  work 
ing  order  of  the  new  machinery  in  critical  emer 
gencies.  The  breaking  out  of  the  French  Bevolu- 
tion  created,  as  might  have  been  expected,  a  tre 
mendous  sensation  and  universal  enthusiasm 
throughout  the  United  States,  in  which  doubtless 
Washington  and  Hamilton  at  first  sympathized, 
welcoming  the  hope  of  constitutional  liberty  aris 
ing  upon  the  ruins  of  despotism.  But  when  the 
true  nature  and  inevitable  tendency  of  that  awful 
conflict  revealed  itself;  "  when/'  as  Mr.  Lodge 
finely  says,  "  reform  became  revolution,  revolu 
tion  anarchy,  and  redress  revenge  —  when  hot- 
blooded  killings  in  the  streets  changed  to  cold- 

130 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

blooded  massacre  and  cowardly  murder  in  the 
palace  and  the  prison,  culminating  at  last  in  the 
execution  of  the  King  and  the  daily  slaughter  of 
the  guillotine  —  then  public  opinion  in  America 
shifted, ' '  and  the  conservative  elements  of  society, 
headed  by  Washington  and  Hamilton,  raised 
formidable  and  successful  barriers  against  the 
tide  of  Jacobin  sentiment,  which  even  the  Atlantic 
was  not  wide  enough  to  keep  out  of  the  land. 

When  the  news  arrived  of  the  outbreak  of  war 
between  England  and  France,  the  President,  on 
a  careful  study  of  the  situation,  declared  for  ab 
solute  and  strict  neutrality  between  the  contend 
ing  Powers,  and  determined  that  our  previous 
relations  of  alliance  and  friendship  with  France 
should  not  entangle  us  in  any  way  in  the  seething 
turmoil  of  French  madness.  He  issued  his  famous 
proclamation  of  neutrality,  treating  both  parties 
to  the  war  on  terms  of  strict  and  impartial  equal 
ity,  which  established  for  the  future  our  uniform 
relation  to  all  foreign  wars. 

This  proclamation  of  neutrality  was,  under  the 
circumstances,  a  magnificent  exhibition  by  Wash 
ington  of  those  great  qualities  of  wisdom,  firm 
ness  and  integrity  of  mind  for  which  he  was  so 
remarkable.  The  drift  of  popular  feeling  in 
America  was  strongly  on  the  side  of  France. 
We  were  bound  to  her  by  ties  of  gratitude  for 
the  timely,  efficient,  and  generous  aid  she  had  then 
so  recently  given  us  in  the  very  crisis  of  our  fate, 
and  which  had  enabled  us  so  soon  to  secure  our 
independence.  We  were  also  bound  by  the  terms 

131 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

of  the  defensive  Treaty  of  Alliance,  which  Frank 
lin  had  won  so  much  fame  by  negotiating.  On 
the  other  hand  there  still  lingered  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people  much  of  that  bitterness  of  feeling 
against  England,  which  the  recent  contest  had 
necessarily  excited,  and  which  new  causes  of  dif 
ference  arising  since  the  war  had  not  permitted 
to  subside.  After  patiently  hearing  all  sides, 
Washington  concluded  that  our  National  interests 
and  National  honor  alike  required  us  to  abstain 
from  all  part  in  the  war,  and  the  Proclamation 
went  forth  in  the  most  emphatic  terms. 

When  a  representative  of  the  Convention 
rived  as  Minister  from  the  French  Eepublic,  'and 
endeavored  by  all  sorts  of  intrigue  and  plot  to 
embroil  us  —  when  Jacobin  clubs  were  estab 
lished,  and  a  great  party  was  formed  in  support 
of  so-called  French  principles,  Washington  en 
forced  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability  the  doctrine  of 
the  proclamation,  counteracting  and  defeating  all 
the  dangerous  efforts  of  this  turbulent  emissary 
and  his  American  supporters,  and  finally  insisted 
peremptorily  upon  his  recall.  The  performances 
of  this  emissary  of  the  French  Revolutionary  Gov 
ernment,  from  the  day  he  landed  on  our  shores 
until  his  recall,  were  most  remarkable.  Landing 
at  Charleston  on  the  very  day  of  the  issue  of  the 
proclamation,  he  persistently  defied  its  provisions. 
He  issued  commissions  and  fitted  out  privateers  to 
prey  upon  British  commerce,  appointed  consuls 
and  instructed  them  to  act  as  prize  courts  on  our 
neutral  territory,  and  made  triumphal  processions 

132 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

through  the  States.  He  made  our  soil  the  base  of 
warlike  operations,  and  did  his  best  to  drag  us 
into  the  war,  and,  as  a  last  act  of  temerity,  he  had 
the  assurance  to  appeal  from  the  President  to  the 
People,  whom  he  had  done  his  best  to  convert 
into  French  Propagandists.  During  this  stirring 
period  Hamilton,  in  the  Cabinet  and  the  press, 
rallied  mightily  to  the  support  of  his  chief,  and 
impressed  himself  and  his  ideas  most  indelibly, 
not  only  upon  the  great  Federalist  party,  of  which 
he  was  the  acknowledged  chief,  but  upon  the 
future  policy  of  the  country  for  generations. 

Another  occasion  arose  to  test  the  firmness  and 
efficiency  of  the  new  Government.  When  the 
growing  necessities  of  the  organized  service  called 
for  enlarged  taxation,  and  an  increased  excise 
was  imposed  by  Congress  upon  distilled  spirits, 
what  was  known  as  the  "  Whiskey  Rebellion  " 
broke  out  in  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
armed  resistance  to  the  process  and  officers  of 
the  United  States  —  and  a  wide-spread  indulgence 
in  disorder  and  outrage.  Great  forces  of  armed 
men  in  open  defiance  of  the  law  occupied  broad 
tracts  of  country,  and  the  practical  question  arose, 
whether  we  had  a  government  capable  of  dealing 
with  such  a  crisis  or  not.  This  was  the  first  time 
that  the  new  Government  had  had  to  resort  to 
force  against  popular  violence,  and  it  was  now  to 
be  determined  whether  it  had  the  power  and  the 
nerve  to  enforce  obedience  to  its  own  laws. 

Washington,  firmly  supported  by  his  stalwart 
Secretary,  who  liked  nothing  better  than  a  fight, 

133 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

soon  called  an  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men  into 
the  field  which  marched  under  the  general  direc 
tion  of  Hamilton,  into  the  disturbed  districts,  put 
a  speedy  end  to  what  threatened  to  be  an  obstinate 
revolution,  and  set  an  example  of  how  the  Federal 
Government  could  and  should  deal  with  insurrec 
tion.  All  this  was  in  striking  contrast  to  what 
had  happened  in  Massachusetts  just  before  the 
Federal  Convention  met,  when  a  debtors '  rebellion 
had  taken  possession  of  the  State  and  closed  all 
the  Courts  of  Justice,  and  the  Government  of  the 
Confederation  had  not  been  able  to  lift  a  finger 
tojiid  the  State  in  its  suppression. 

I  shall  not  ask  you  to  follow  Hamilton  through 
the  ten  years  that  remained  to  him  after  his  re 
tirement  from  public  life,  which  was  compelled  by 
the  necessity  of  providing  for  a  large  and  grow 
ing  family.  His  ardent  interest  and  inspiring  in 
fluence  in  public  affairs  never  slackened.  Although 
no  longer  in  the  Cabinet,  he  was  frequently  called 
upon  by  Washington  for  advice  and  assistance, 
and  freely  gave  his  opinion  and  counsel  on  impor 
tant  public  questions.  He  was  the  acknowledged 
head  of  the  historic  Federal  Party,  to  whose  con 
tinual  conflicts,  alike  in  victory  and  defeat,  his 
fiery  zeal  and  passionate  nature  lent  always  a 
glowing  heat.  Apart  from  these  excursions  into 
politics,  his  later  years  were  spent  in  the  enjoy 
ment  of  a  most  felicitous  domestic  life,  and  in 
the  honorable  pursuit  in  a  large  way  of  the  pro 
fession  which  he  loved  and  ennobled,  and  in  which 
he  was  easily  foremost. 

134 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

It  is  in  that  honorable  calling  which  he  always 
magnified  and  adorned,  that  I  love  to  contemplate 
him,  devoting  the  marvellous  force  of  his  char 
acter,  intellect,  and  will  to  the  service  of  the  com 
munity,  in  those  great  forensic  contests  to  which 
he  was  naturally  called.  Chancellor  Kent,  whose 
authority  on  that  subject  is  conclusive,  says  of 
him :  ' '  Among  his  brethren  Hamilton  was  indis 
putably  pre-eminent.  This  was  universally  con 
ceded.  He  rose  at  once  to  the  loftiest  heights  of 
professional  eminence  by  his  profound  penetra 
tion,  his  power  of  analysis,  the  comprehensive 
grasp  and  strength  of  his  understanding,  and  the 
firmness,  frankness  and  integrity  of  his  charac 
ter.  "  The  same  qualities  it  will  be  noted  made 
him  so  nearly  supreme  in  political  and  public  life. 

I  would  not  have  you  believe  that  I  am  present 
ing  Hamilton  as  a  hero  without  spot  or  blemish. 
He  had  many  and  glaring  faults,  but  they  were 
mostly  the  result  of  that  passionate  and  impetu 
ous  nature  which  was  a  striking  feature  of  his 
personality.  An  intrigue  in  private  life,  which 
his  enemies  seized  upon  as  a  means  of  defa 
ming  his  public  character,  by  the  pretence  that 
he  had  spent  upon  its  object  public  moneys, 
compelled  him  to  an  elaborate  vindication  of  his 
official  conduct.  He  not  only  silenced  but  con 
vinced  his  slanderers,  although  at  the  expense  of 
a  humiliating  confession  on  his  own  part  which 
marred  the  sanctity  of  his  private  life.  His  po 
litical  conflicts,  even  within  the  party  of  which  he 
was  the  acknowledged  head,  were  often  marked 

135 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

by  fierce  outbreaks  of  temper  and  vindictive  pas 
sion.  These  involved  him  in  personal  quarrels 
which  sadly  interfered  with  the  plans  and  the 
policy  of  the  Federalists,  and  one  of  which  directly 
led  to  their  overthrow.  But  his  commanding  tal 
ents  and  weight  of  character  were  so  transcendent, 
his  genius  for  public  service  so  unfailing,  his  po 
litical  vision  so  clear,  and  his  devotion  to  public 
duty  so  constant,  that  even  these  great  faults  have 
hardly  diminished  the  lustre  of  his  fame,  or  the 
gratitude  of  his  countrymen  for  his  matchless 
services  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the  Eepublic. 
He  scorned  all  mercenary  ideas  and  motives,  all 
low  ambitions,  and  his  integrity  was  so  absolute, 
and  his  patriotism  so  unselfish  and  exalted,  that 
his  name  and  career  are  a  cherished  national 
treasure. 

The  tragical  death  of  Hamilton  has  done  much 
to  embalm  his  name  in  the  memory  of  his  country 
men.  Great  as  we  have  seen  him  to  be,  he  was 
not  great  enough  to  rise  above  the  barbarous  and 
brutal  theory  and  practice  of  that  age,  which 
sanctioned  and  compelled  a  resort  to  the  duel  as 
the  honorable  mode  of  settling  personal  disputes, 
but  to  which  the  cruel  sacrifice  of  his  precious  life 
put  an  end,  at  least  in  the  Northern  States.  Two 
years  before,  he  had  followed  to  the  grave  his 
eldest  son,  a  victim  to  the  same  senseless  code  of 
honor,  and  now,  still  in  the  very  prime  of  his  own 
life,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven,  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  career  of  usefulness,  crowned  with  all  the 
laurels  which  his  grateful  country  could  bestow, 

136 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

he  was  called  to  meet  his  own  untimely  fate.  He 
accepted  the  challenge,  forced  upon  him  by  his 
most  dangerous  and  unscrupulous  political  adver 
sary,  with  whom  he  had  had  many  bitter  contests, 
and  who  was  at  last  determined  to  be  rid  of  him. 
One  glorious  July  morning,  on  the  heights  of  Wee- 
hawken,  overlooking  the  Hudson  and  in  sight  of 
his  own  happy  home  in  New  York  —  whose  idol 
he  had  been  —  they  met  for  the  last  and  mortal 
combat.  Hamilton  fell  fatally  wounded  at  the 
first  shot  of  his  adversary,  having  fired  his  own 
pistol  in  the  air,  and  so  unhappily  and  unworthily 
ended  the  life  of  one  of  the  noblest,  manliest  and 
most  useful  men  of  whom  we  have  any  record  - 
the  trusted  friend  and  companion  of  Washing 
ton —  and  one  of  the  best  gifts  of  God  to  the 
Nation  which  they  labored  together  to  found. 


137 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON 

Address  at  the  Passmore  Edwards  Institute, 
June  15th,  1903. 

WE  come  to-day,  in  these  congenial  sur 
roundings  of  the  Passmore  Edwards 
Settlement,  to  unveil  the  bust  of  a  great  Amer 
ican,  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  of  them  all, 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  the  centenary  of  whose 
birth,  on  the  25th  of  May  last,  was  celebrated  with 
reverence  and  enthusiasm  throughout  his  own 
country  and  in  many  distant  lands.  Hundreds  of 
speakers  and  writers  have  been  discussing  his 
merits,  and  I  have  absolutely  nothing  new  to  offer 
on  a  subject  so  freshly  familiar.  I  would  much 
rather  set  him  before  you  in  his  own  words  than 
in  any  of  my  own. 

His  claims  to  distinction  as  poet,  philosopher! 
and  prophet  have  been  warmly  advanced  by  his) 
disciples,  and  as  freely  contested  by  the  critics, 
but  whatever  controversy  there  is  about  him 
seems  to  me  to  be  really  a  war  of  words  and  a 
contest  of  definitions.  It  is  generally  agreed  that 
he  was  one  of  the  great  intellectual  lights  of  the 
nineteenth  century;  that,  as  a  result  of  his  forty 
years  of  wide  and  almost  universal  reading,  pro 
found  contemplation,  brilliant  writing,  and  en 
larged  discourse,  he  came  to  be  recognized  as  one 

141 


EALPH   WALDO   EMEESON 

f  the  wisest  of  men,  a  great  and  efficient  teacher 
T  his  own  generation,  and  of  that  which  came 
after  it,  and  far  in  advance  of  his  age  on  many 
important  questions. 

He  certainly  had  a  vivid  and  fertile  imagina 
tion,  a  wonderful  power  of  idealizing  the  facts  of 
nature  and  the  events  of  life,  and  a  quick  sympa 
thy  with  all  that  concerned  and  interested  human 
ity,  which  enabled  him  to  produce  some  poems 
which  still  live  after  half  a  century,  and  which  are 
likely  to  find  many  readers  in  coming  generations. 
His  neighbors  assembled  at  Concord  Bridge  to 
celebrate  the  completion  of  the  monument  which 
marked  the  spot  where  the  plain  farmers  of  New 
England  offered  the  first  armed  resistance  to 
British  troops.  There  bloodshed  on  both  sides 
began  the  long  conflict  which  divided  the  British 
Empire  into  two  independent  nations,  —  nations 
which  now  at  last  happily  vie  with  each  other  in 
words  and  acts  of  mutual  friendship,  and  in  ef 
forts  to  advance  the  best  interests  of  mankind. 
In  a  single  stanza  he  told  the  thrilling  story  in 
words  that  still  echo  like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet : 

"  By  the  rude  bridge  that  arched  the  flood, 

Their  flag  to  April's  breeze  unfurled, 
Here  once  the  embattled  farmers  stood, 

And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  "World. ' ' 

Eecalling  his  visit  to  Eome,  and  what  he  had 
seen  of  the  work  of  Michael  Angelo,  as  an  archi 
tect,  upon  the  great  cathedral  with  its  soaring 

142 


RALPH   WALDO    EMEESON 

dome,  he  apostrophized  architecture  as  the  Divine 
Art,  directly  illuminated  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  in 
words  that  ought  to  be  immortal:  — 

"  The  hand  that  rounded  Peter's  Dome, 
And  groined  the  aisles  of  Christian  Rome, 
"Wrought  in  a  sad  sincerity ; 
Himself  from  God  he  could  not  free ; 
He  builded  better  than  he  knew : 
The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew." 

He  had  absolute  faith  in  the  close  relation 
between  the  living  God  and  the  spirit  of  the  indi 
vidual  man,  and  in  the  boundless  possibilities  of 
human  nature  as  its  direct  result. 

Listen  to  another  single  verse  which  ought  to 
live  as  long  as  the  language  lasts,  expressing  this 
idea.  He  was  showing  how  noble  youth,  brought 
up,  it  may  be,  in  luxury  and  ease,  in  sport  and 
idling,  prove  to  be  heroes  when  the  trumpet 
sounds  and  their  names  are  called;  and  turning 
their  backs  on  all  they  have  prized  before,  on 
home  and  love  itself,  risk  life  and  limb  and  happi 
ness  to  save  or  serve  the  cause  of  their  country: 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man, 
"When  Duty  whispers  low  '  Thou  must, ' 
The  youth  replies,  '  I  can.'  ' 

Nor  are  these  utterances  isolated  and  excep 
tional  in  their  style  and  character.  Much  of  his 

143 


EALPH   WALDO   EMEKSON 

poetry  breathes  the  same  lofty  spirit,  the  same 
living  imagery.  And  sometimes  he  was  master  of 
a  lighter  vein,  full  of  sparkling  wit  and  genial 
fun. 

Witness  his  fable  of  the  quarrel  between  the 
squirrel  and  the  mountain: 

11  The  Mountain  and  the  Squirrel  had  a  quarrel, 

And  the  former  called  the  latter  '  little  Prig.' 

Bun  replied: 
'  You  are  doubtless  very  big, 

But  all  sorts  of  things  and  weather 

Must  be  taken  in  together 

To  make  up  a  year 

And  a  sphere, 

And  I  think  it  no  disgrace 

To  occupy  my  place. 

If  I'm  not  so  large  as  you, 

You  are  not  so  small  as  I, 

And  not  half  so  spry. 

I'll  not  deny  you  make 

A  very  pretty  squirrel  track. 

Talents  differ :  all  is  well  and  wisely  put, 

If  I  cannot  carry  forests  on  my  back 

Neither  can  you  crack  a  nut.'  ' 

Whether  he  is  justly  to  be  called  a  great  poet 
or  is  destined  to  an  immortality  of  centuries  or 
not,  he  gave  us  much  delightful  poetry,  and  the 
lovers  of  poetry,  who  form  but  a  small  part  of 
the  readers  of  the  English  language,  will  always 
find  much  to  cherish  in  what  he  has  written. 

You  all  know  the  main  facts  of  his  simple  and 
uneventful  life.  He  was  a  Puritan  of  the  Puri- 

144 


RALPH   WALDO    EMERSON 

tans,  or  if  there  be  such  a  thing  as  a  Puritan  of 
the  Puritans  of  the  Puritans,  he  was  exactly  that. 
He  was  descended  from  a  long  line  of  dissenting 
clergymen,  beginning  with  the  original  immigrant 
who  had  fled  from  persecution  at  the  hands  of 
Archbishop  Laud.  Being  silenced  for  Non-con 
formity  he  had  escaped  to  New  England,  and 
founded  a  church  at  Concord,  the  little  village 
fifteen  miles  from  Boston,  which  was  to  be  Emer 
son's  home  for  life. 

Graduating  at  Harvard  College  at  the  age  of 
18,  Emerson  studied  theology,  and,  under  the  in 
fluence  of  Dr.  Channing,  he  became  a  Unitarian 
minister,  a  Protestant  of  the  Protestants,  and 
soon  found  himself  the  pastor  of  a  church  in 
Boston ;  but  even  the  gentle  trammels  of  that  mild 
communion  could  not  long  contain  his  independent 
soul.  He  gave  up  the  sacred  office,  and  all  the 
difficulties  which  it  involved  for  his  gentle  spirit, 
and  retired  to  his  ancestral  village  of  Concord, 
where  for  forty  years  he  devoted  himself  to  plain 
living  and  high  thinking,  to  deep  reading  and 
writing  and  lecturing,  by  which  he  obtained  his 
livelihood,  for  he  had  been  born  and  bred  in  pov 
erty  and  received  nothing  by  inheritance. 

To  two  successive  generations  of  his  country 
men,  in  his  lectures,  addresses  and  published  wri 
tings,  he  gave,  from  time  to  time,  the  rich  fruits 
of  his  reading,  study,  and  contemplation.  He 
read  everything  good,  but  Shakespeare,  Plato, 
Plutarch,  Goethe,  Bacon,  Swedenborg  and  Mon 
taigne  seem  to  have  been  his  favorite  authors. 

145 


EALPH   WALDO    EMERSON 

He  remembered  what  he  read  as  few  people  do, 
and  made  notes  of  whatever  impressed  him,  which 
furnished  the  material  for  those  copious  and  apt 
illustrations  of  which  his  works  are  full. 

Though  he  severed  his  connection  with  the 
(churches  he  certainly  had  a  religion  of  his  own 
which  exalted  and  spiritualized  him.  Dr.  Holmes, 
who  knew  him  well  and  is  one  of  his  most  appre 
ciative  biographers,  says :  ' '  His  creed  was  a  brief 
one,  but  he  carried  it  everywhere  with  him.  In 
all  he  did,  in  all  he  said,  and,  so  far  as  all  out 
ward  signs  could  show,  in  all  his  thoughts,  the 
indwelling  spirit  was  his  light  and  guide :  through 
all  nature  he  looked  up  to  Nature's  God;  and  if 
he  did  not  worship  the  man  Christ  Jesus  as  the 
Churches  of  Christendom  have  done,  he  followed 
His  footsteps  so  nearly  that  our  good  Methodist, 
Father  Taylor,  spoke  of  him  as  more  like  Christ 
than  any  man  he  had  known." 

The  great  influence  which,  by  his  wisdom  and 
spotless  life,  he  rapidly  acquired  and  maintained 
to  the  end,  certainly  had  a  marked  effect  in  miti 
gating  the  rigid  tone  of  dogmatism  from  which  he 
revolted.  Dean  Stanley,  on  his  return  from  Amer 
ica,  is  said  to  have  reported  that  "  religion  had 
there  passed  through  an  evolution  from  Edwards 
to  Emerson,  and  that  the  genial  atmosphere  which 
Emerson  had  done  so  much  to  promote  is  shared 
by  all  the  churches  equally." 

The  same  Father  Taylor,  a  great  apostle  of 
Methodism,  was  so  impressed  by  his-  pure  and 
exalted  spirit,  that  when  some  of  his  Methodist 

146 


EALPH   WALDO   EMERSON 

friends  took  him  to  task  for  maintaining  his 
friendship  with  Emerson,  on  the  ground  that, 
being  a  Unitarian,  he  must  go  to  a  place  not  to 
be  mentioned  in  good  society,  he  replied, '  '  It  does 
look  so,  but  I  am  sure  of  one  thing;  if  Emerson 
does  go  to  —  that  place  —  he  will  change  the 
climate  there,  and  emigration  will  set  that 
way." 

Of  his  prose  writings,  how  is  it  possible  to  say 
more  than  was  said  by  Matthew  Arnold,  who 
judged  him  very  critically,  and  cannot  be  said  to 
have  exaggerated  anything  in  his  favor?  What 
he  says  is  this : 

"  As  Wordsworth's  poetry  is  in  my  judgment 
the  most  important  work  done  in  verse  in  our  lan 
guage  during  the  present  century  ' '  (the  nine 
teenth,  of  course),  "  so  Emerson's  Essays  are,  I 
think,  the  most  important  work  done  in  prose." 

His  busy  brain  was  never  still,  his  driving  pen 
was  never  idle,  his  eloquent  voice,  in  lectures,  and 
discourses,  profound,  entertaining  and  instruct 
ive,  was  heard  by  his  countrymen  with  ever  in 
creasing  delight  and  satisfaction.  Self-reliance, 
absolute  trust  in  his  own  conscience  and  convic-i 
tions,  and  a  fearless  following  of  these  in  conduct! 
and  action,  wherever  they  might  lead,  were  the* 
constant  guides  of  his  own  life;  and  he  never 
failed  to  urge  upon  his  hearers  and  readers  to 
pursue  the  same  path. 

He  appealed  always  to  the  higher,  the  highest, 
motives,  instincts,  passions  of  our  nature,  moral,} 
intellectual  and  spiritual,  and  was  never  content 

147 


EALPH   WALDO   EMERSON 

to  discover  and  repeat  what  other  men  had  said 
and  thought  on  the  subject  in  hand,  except  to 
illustrate  his  own  thoughts  and  conclusions,  which 
he  evolved  fearlessly  from  his  own  inner  light, 
to  which  alone  he  looked  for  inspiration.  The 
wide  scope  of  subjects  which  he  treated  embraced 
the  whole  range  of  human  life,  conduct  and  as- 
•  pirations.  His  mission  was  to  arouse,  to  stimu 
late  and  elevate  the  public  and  private  life  of 
America  to  a  higher  and  nobler  plane. 

He  began  to  answer  Sydney  Smith's  cynical 
question  "  In  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  who 
reads  an  American  book?  "  and  led  the  way  in 
rescuing  American  literature  from  the  sluggish 
and  torpid  stream  in  which  it  had  long  been  con 
fined.  He  lived  to  see  it  flowing  in  a  broad  and 
ever  widening  current,  which  refreshed  and  ani 
mated  the  whole  of  our  national  life.  It  was  his 
peculiar  gift  and  function  to  stimulate  and  inspire 
those  who  labored  with  him  or  followed  after 
him  in  the  field  of  letters,  and  before  he  died  the 
real  question  came  to  be  "  In  the  four  quarters 
of  the  globe,  who  does  not  read  American  books 
and  recognize  American  ideas?  ' 

As  time  went  on  his  books  found  many  sympa 
thetic  and  admiring  readers  among  thoughtful 
men  and  women  in  England,  and  in  foreign  coun 
tries  into  whose  many  languages  they  were  trans 
lated,  and  the  Emerson  cult  became  very  widely 
spread.  Herman  Grimm  wrote  to  him  from  Ber 
lin:  "  Whenever  I  think  of  America  I  think  of 
you,"  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  to  many  serious 

148 


EALPH   WALDO   EMERSON 

and  earnest  souls  in  many  lands,  the  name  of  our 
young  Republic  suggests  first  the  image  of  this 
profound  thinker  and  stimulating  teacher. 

I  confess  that  of  all  the  authors  with  whom  I 
have  become  familiar,  I  turn  always  first  to  him 
for  light  and  leading,  and  find  him  more  suggest 
ive,  more  instructive,  more  awakening  than  any 
other ;  there  are  but  few  subjects  dealing  with  the 
conduct  of  life,  or  the  duties  of  man,  or  the  study 
of  nature,  of  which  he  has  not  treated  more  or 
less  directly ;  and  anyone  who  has  to  take  up  such 
a  subject  for  the  first  time,  cannot  begin  better 
than  by  turning  to  his  pages  to  see  what  he  has 
said  about  it. 

President  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  in  a  carefully  pre 
pared  essay,  quite  worthy  of  Emerson  himself, 
read  in  Boston  on  the  centennial  of  his  birth,  has 
demonstrated  that  Mr.  Emerson  was  far  in  ad- 
Ivance  of  his  time  on  many  moral,  social,  and  polit 
ical  questions,  and  that  he  indicated,  with  singular 
sagacity  and  foresight,  the  course  of  their  future 
development  —  as  the  same  actually  occurred  - 
so  that  although  the  ranks  of  the  prophets  are 
closed  against  him,  we  may  well  describe  him  as 
the  forerunner  of  American  thought. 

He  rarely  took  part  in  any  controversies,  al 
though  many  were  raised  in  the  path  of  his  ad 
vancing  progress,  but  left  them  to  be  fought  out 
by  others,  while  he  kept  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way,  thinking  and  teaching  still.  He  cherished 
with  unfaltering  hope  and  confidence  the  noblest 
aspirations  for  his  country,  and  uniformly  pre- 
149 


RALPH   WALDO   EMEESON 

dieted  its  ultimate  success  and  triumph  in  those 
better  things  that  constitute  true  civilization; 
but  he  never  hesitated  to  scourge  his  countrymen 
for  their  shortcomings,  which  stood  in  the  way 
of  their  reaching  the  final  goal  of  his  high  ideal. 
This  he  could  always  do  with  effect  and  authority, 
because  he  stood  aside  from  politics,  and  because 
his  courage  and  virtue  commanded  universal 
reverence. 

He  lent  the  generous  and  telling  influence  of  his 
character  and  opinion  to  the  cause  of  reform,  but 
sometimes  turned  rather  a  cold  shoulder  to  prac 
tical  reformers,  whose  rough  and  tumble  methods 
were  at  variance  with  his  gentle  and  retiring 
spirit.  In  great  crises,  however,  his  soul  was 
stirred,  and  his  voice  rang  out  like  a  megaphone 
across  the  land. 

In  his  address  at  Concord  in  commemoration  of 
Emancipation  in  the  West  Indies  he  concluded 
with  these  prophetic  words:  — 

"  The  sentiment  of  Right,  once  very  low  and  indis 
tinct,  but  ever  more  articulate  because  it  is  the  voice  of 
the  Universe,  pronounces  Freedom.  The  Power  that 
built  this  fabric  of  things  affirms  it  in  the  heart ;  and  in 
•the  history  of  the  First  of  August  has  made  a  sign  to 
the  ages,  of  His  will." 

Within  twenty  years  from  that  utterance,  Lin 
coln  had  signed  the  proclamation  which  freed  all 
the  slaves  in  America,  and  the  vast  Empire  of 
Eussia  had  no  longer  a  slave  within  its  borders. 

150 

9 


RALPH    WALDO   EMERSON 

When  Sumner  was  struck  down  in  the  Senate 
for  words  spoken  in  debate,  he  declared: 

11  The  events  of  the  last  few  years  and  months  and 
days  have  taught  us  the  lessons  of  centuries.  I  think 
we  must  get  rid  of  slavery  or  we  must  get  rid  of  free 
dom." 

When  the  attempt  was  made  to  force  slavery 
upon  Kansas  by  armed  might,  he  said : 

"  I  wish  we  could  stop  every  man  who  is  about  to 
leave  the  country.  Send  home  every  one  who  is  abroad 
lest  they  should  find  no  country  to  return  to.  Come 
home  and  stay  at  home  while  there  is  a  country  to  save. 
When  it  is  lost,  it  will  be  time  enough  for  any  who  are 
luckless  enough  to  remain  alive,  to  gather  up  their 
clothes  and  depart  to  some  land  where  Freedom  exists. " 

When  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was 
actually  signed,  he  said: 

11  The  first  condition  of  success  is  secured  in  putting 
ourselves  right.  We  have  recovered  ourselves  from  our 
false  position  and  planted  ourselves  on  a  law  of  Nature. ' ' 

"  If  that  fail, 

The  pillared  firmament  is  rottenness, 
And  Earth's  base  built  on  stubble.'* 

"  The  Government  has  assured  itself  of  the  best  con 
stituency  in  the  world.  Every  spark  of  intellect,  every 
virtuous  feeling,  every  religious  heart,  every  man  of 
honor,  every  poet,  every  philosopher,  the  generosity  of 

151 


RALPH   WALDO   EMEESON 

the  cities,  the  health  of  the  country,  the  strong  arms  of 
the  mechanic,  the  endurance  of  farmers,  the  passionate 
conscience  of  women,  the  sympathy  of  distant  nations, 
all  rally  to  its  support." 

When  Lincoln  was  struck  down  he  said  of  him : 

' '  By  his  courage,  his  justice,  his  even  temper,  his  fer 
tile  counsel,  his  humanity,  he  stood  a  heroic  figure  in  the 
centre  of  a  heroic  epoch.  He  is  the  true  history  of  the 
American  people  in  his  time.  Step  by  step  he  walked 
before  them;  slow  with  their  slowness;  quickening  his 
march  by  theirs;  the  true  representative  of  this  con 
tinent,  an  entirely  public  man,  father  of  his  country; 
the  pulse  of  twenty  millions  throbbing  in  his  heart,  the 
thought  of  their  minds  articulated  by  his  tongue.  Only 
Washington  can  compare  with  him  in  fortune." 

Scouted  at  first  as  a  mystic  and  a  dreamer, 
Kalph  Waldo  Emerson  lived  long  enough  to  re 
ceive  the  general  homage  of  the  confidence  and 
affection  of  Ms  countrymen.  They  honored  him 
for  his  dauntless  courage,  his  sublime  devotion 
to  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  and  the  right, 
his  clear  and  controlling  conscience,  his  wisdom 
of  which  they  garnered  the  ripe  fruits,  and  his 
life-long  endeavor  to  elevate  the  standard  of 
their  literature,  morals,  and  manners.  They  ad 
mired  his  unfaltering  patriotism,  and  Ms  ardent 
sympathy  with  human  nature,  wMch  no  time  could 
limit  and  no  continent  could  bound.  They  loved 
Mm  for  Ms  sweet  and  simple  nature  and  life,  Ms 
serene  and  spotless  character,  Ms  modest  and  un- 

152 


RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON 

assuming  manners,  and,  most  of  all,  because  he 
loved  them,  and  spent  his  life  in  thinking  and 
working  for  their  highest  welfare.  Heart  and  soul 
he  was  full  of  sunshine;  he  shed  its  beams  all 
about  him  and  saw  and  revealed  only  the  bright 
side. 

I  rejoice  that  this  striking  image  of  him  has 
found  an  abiding-place  in  this  noble  building,  the 
home  and  centre  of  a  great  and  good  work.  I 
congratulate  Mr.  Passmore  Edwards  and  Mrs. 
Humphry  Ward  on  acquiring  this  bust  as  a  fitting 
ornament  of  this  Institute,  on  the  shelves  of 
whose  Library  his  books  will  be  found.  I  am  sure 
that  they  will  reach  many  readers,  and  know  that 
they  will  exercise  on  their  minds  nothing  but  a 
wholesome,  elevating  and  inspiring  influence. 
all  depends  on  what  you  read  for.  If  you  read 
only  for  dissipation  of  thought,  or  for  oblivious 
languor,  don't  touch  Emerson.  But  if  you  seek 
for  ideas  and  information,  for  light  and  leading, 
for  real  inspiration,  for  love  of  country,  and  faith 
in  God  and  faith  in  man,  you  will  find  them  all  in 
him. 

Three  years  ago,  when  "  The  Hall  of  Fame  for 
Great  Americans  "  was  established  in  the  Uni 
versity  of  New  York  by  the  lavish  generosity  of 
a  citizen,  the  name  of  Emerson  came  out  from  the 
public  election,  confirmed  by  the  votes  of  the  coun 
cil,  as  the  eighth  among  famous  native-born 
Americans  of  all  the  past.  The  seven  who  pre 
ceded  him  were  Washington,  Lincoln,  Webster, 
Franklin,  Grant,  Marshall,  Jefferson,  all  men  of 

153 


EALPH   WALDO   EMEKSON 

affairs,  of  the  greatest  affairs.  But  Emerson,  as 
a  pure  man  of  letters,  stood  first  in  the  hearts  of 
his  countrymen,  and  there  we  may  be  content  to 
leave  him  to  the  judgment  of  posterity. 


154 


THE  SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

ITS  PLACE  IN  THE  CONSTITUTION 


THE  SUPREME  COURT  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES 

ITS    PLACE    IN    THE    CONSTITUTION 

Address  delivered  before  the  Political  and  Social  Education  League, 
May  13th,  1903. 

I  INVITE  your  attention  to  a  brief  study  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  a 
cardinal  feature  of  our  Federal  representative 
Government,  balancing  and  harmonizing  all  its 
parts,  a  tribunal  which  has  received  the  general 
approval  and  admiration  of  foreign  Jurists  and 
Statesmen,  and  commands  the  universal  respect 
and  confidence  of  the  people  for  whom  it  adminis 
ters  justice. 

The  Federal  Convention  of  1787,  which  framed 
our  Constitution  and  created  this  unique  Tri 
bunal,  was  composed  mostly  of  members  of  the 
legal  profession,  which  has  always  in  America 
been  the  chief  nursery  of  Statesmen;  but  Wash 
ington,  the  soldier,  presided,  and  Franklin,  the 
philosopher,  advised  at  every  step.  The  members 
of  the  Convention  were  undoubtedly  chosen  from 
the  best  qualified  men  that  the  country  could  fur 
nish  for  the  momentous  work  which  was  set 
before  them,  and  their  merits  have  been  so  uni 
versally  recognized  that  I  need  not  repeat  any  of 

157 


THE   SUPREME   COUBT 

the  emphatic  tributes  which  many  great  English 
men  have  paid  to  the  results  of  their  labors. 

Their  work  was  finished  in  four  months'  secret 
session  at  Philadelphia,  but  most  of  them  had 
been  in  training  for  it  through  twenty  long  years 
of  trial  and  trouble. 

From  1765,  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Stamp 
Act,  which  was  passed  through  both  Houses  of 
Parliament  with  little  opposition,  the  Colonists, 
and  especially  the  lawyers  of  the  Colonies,  had 
been  careful  and  earnest  students  of  the  princi 
ples  of  free  government. 

In  1774,  having  exhausted  in  vain  all  appeals 
to  King  and  Parliament  for  a  redress  of  their 
grievances,  they  sent  delegates  to  a  Continental 
Congress  to  deliberate  on  the  state  of  public  af 
fairs,  and  in  this  Congress,  which  lasted  for  seven 
years,  many  of  the  future  framers  of  the  Consti 
tution  who  were  members  of  it  found  a  most  in 
structive  school  of  statesmanship,  and  constantly 
devoted  themselves  to  the  social  and  political  edu 
cation  of  the  Colonists  in  matters  of  government 
and  of  public  law  and  popular  rights. 

In  1776,  as  the  representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America  in  General  Congress  assembled, 
appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world  for 
the  rectitude  of  their  intentions,  they  did,  "  in  the 
name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  good  people  of 
the  Colonies,  solemnly  publish  and  declare  that 
these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to 
be,  free  and  independent  States;  that  they  are, 
and  of  right  ought  to  be,  absolved  from  all 

158 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

giance  to  the  British  Crown;  and  that  all  polit 
ical  connection  between  them  and  the  State  of 
Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dis 
solved.  "  They  declared  "  that  as  free  and  inde 
pendent  States  they  have  full  power  to  levy  war, 
conclude  peace,  contract  alliances,  establish  com 
merce,  and  to  do  all  other  acts  and  things  which 
independent  States  may  of  right  do,"  and  for  the 
support  of  this  declaration,  with  a  firm  reliance 
on  the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  they 
mutually  pledged  to  each  other  their  lives,  their 
fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor. 

From  the  hour  of  the  Declaration,  the  men  who 
made  it,  and  all  the  other  Statesmen  of  the  Colo 
nies,  had  to  give  renewed  and  constant  study  to 
the  whole  science  of  government. 

As  they  proved  able  by  force  of  arms  to  make 
good  this  declaration,  the  United  Colonies  became 
from  its  date  a  new  Nation,  over  which  Congress, 
by  general  consent  and  acquiescence,  exercised 
the  powers  of  a  general  Government,  for  all  the 
purposes  of  the  very  serious  exigency  which  had 
called  it  into  existence.  But  it  was  a  Government 
by  Congress  only,  with  feeble  and  undefined  pow 
ers,  without  an  Executive  and  without  a  Judiciary. 
While  the  war  lasted  it  barely  sufficed,  and  af 
forded  daily  object  lessons  of  its  own  defects,  and 
of  what  was  required  for  a  better  Government 
when  better  days  should  come. 

The  several  individual  States,  being  absolved 
from  the  Royal  Charters  under  which  they  had 
before  practically  managed  their  own  affairs, 

159 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

adopted  written  Constitutions,  based  in  each  case 
upon  the  Sovereignty  of  the  People,  to  take  the 
place  of  the  former  dominion  of  Parliament.  An 
epoch  of  Constitution  making  set  in,  during  which 
the  principles  of  representative  popular  govern 
ment  were  discussed  and  understood.  Virginia, 
the  largest  of  the  States,  the  home  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe,  who  were  to  be 
four  out  of  the  first  five  Presidents  of  the  United 
States,  took  a  leading  part.  New  Hampshire  had 
already  framed  a  temporary  form  of  government 
"  during,"  as  they  said,  "  the  unhappy  and  un 
natural  contest  with  Great  Britain. ' '  South  Caro 
lina  and  New  Jersey  had  followed,  but  in  the  case 
of  the  former  it  was  expressly  declared  that  the 
Constitution  established  was  "  established  until 
an  accommodation  of  the  unhappy  differences 
between  Great  Britain  and  America  could  be 
obtained. ' ' 

Massachusetts,  in  1780,  with  the  utmost  pains 
and  deliberation  prepared  and  adopted  a  complete 
Constitution,  in  which  the  powers  of  Government 
were  carefully  distributed,  with  the  solemn  decla 
ration  that  neither  the  legislative,  executive  or 
judicial  department  should  ever  exercise  the  pow 
ers  of  either  of  the  others  "  to  the  end  that  it 
may  be  a  government  of  laws  and  not  of  men." 
During  the  war  the  other  colonies  were  engaged 
in  the  same  business  of  founding  States  upon  the 
principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  embodied 
in  written  Constitutions.  Ehode  Island  alone, 
founded  by  Eoger  Williams,  the  great  apostle  of 

160 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

Toleration,  having  received  from  Charles  the 
Second  in  1663  a  Royal  Charter,  subsisted  under 
it  until  1842  without  adopting  any  written  Con 
stitution. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  the  individual  States  that 
the  Framers  of  our  Constitution  were  in  all  those 
years  gathering  knowledge  and  experience  in  the 
science  of  popular  government.  From  the  very 
date  of  the  Declaration,  Congress,  conscious  of 
the  inadequacy  of  its  powers,  even  for  the  pur 
poses  of  carrying  on  war  and  conducting  foreign 
affairs,  entered  upon  the  novel  and  difficult  task 
of  arranging  a  scheme  which  should  enable  it 
more  efficiently  to  conduct  those  affairs  which 
were  of  common  interest  to  all  the  people  of  the 
thirteen  States,  and  which  no  one  of  them,  nor 
all  of  them  individually,  could  control.  After  two 
years  they  adopted  and  submitted  to  the  States 
what  they  styled  "  Articles  of  Confederation  and 
perpetual  Union,"  but  it  was  not  until  March, 
1781,  that  the  powers  of  Congress  were  enlarged 
by  the  final  ratification  of  these  articles  by  the 
delegates  of  all  the  States. 

But  this  attempted  bond  of  union  —  a  crude 
experiment  in  the  formation  of  a  National  Gov 
ernment —  proved  little  better  than  a  rope  of 
sand,  and  utterly  failed  to  accomplish  the  pur 
poses  intended.  While  the  war  lasted  the  tremen 
dous  pressure  of  their  common  danger  and  com 
mon  distress  kept  the  States  together,  and  made 
them  obedient  to  the  requests  of  Congress  which 
really  had  no  power  to  command,  but  as  soon  as 

161 


THE    SUPREME   COURT 

this  external  pressure  was  taken  off,  they  fell 
apart,  and  each  asserted  its  independent  sov 
ereignty. 

So  jealous  were  the  States,  which  had  just  es 
caped  from  the  dominion  of  one  central  power,  of 
anything  which  should  seem  to  create  dominion 
over  them  in  another,  that  although  upon  paper 
they  had  laid  many  restraints  upon  their  own 
action,  and  conferred  upon  Congress  extensive 
powers  over  their  Federal  affairs,  they  had  care 
fully  refrained  from  giving  any  sanction  to  those 
powers,  and  from  granting  to  Congress  the  means 
of  compelling  obedience  to  its  enactments.  The 
Articles  provided  for  no  Federal  Executive  and 
for  no  Judiciary  Department,  although  they  au 
thorized  Congress  to  provide  for  the  settlement  of 
boundary  disputes  between  States,  and  to  appoint 
Courts  of  prize  and  for  the  trial  of  piracies  and 
felonies  on  the  high  seas.  Moreover,  Congress 
could  not  of  its  own  authority  raise  a  dollar  of 
money  for  revenue,  or  a  single  man  to  recruit  its 
armies.  It  could  only  make  requisitions  for  men 
and  money  upon  individual  States,  which  met 
them  or  not  as  they  found  it  convenient.  Nor 
could  it  proceed  at  all  in  the  exercise  of  the  prin 
cipal  powers  nominally  conferred  upon  it  until 
nine  States  assented  to  the  same.  One  of  the  lead 
ing  writers  of  the  time  thus  describes  the  powers 
of  Congress  under  this  Confederation:  — 

"  By  this  political  compact  the  United  States  in  Con 
gress  assembled  have  exclusive  power  for  the  following 

162 


THE    SUPKEME    COURT 

purposes,  without  being  able  to  execute  one  of  them. 
They  may  make  and  conclude  Treaties,  but  can  only 
recommend  the  observance  of  them.  They  may  appoint 
Ambassadors,  but  cannot  defray  even  the  expense  of 
their  tables.  They  may  borrow  money  in  their  own 
name  on  the  faith  of  the  Union,  but  cannot  pay  a  dollar. 
They  may  coin  money,  but  they  cannot  purchase  an 
ounce  of  bullion.  They  may  make  war  and  determine 
what  number  of  troops  are  necessary,  but  cannot  raise 
a  single  soldier.  In  short,  they  may  declare  everything, 
and  do  nothing." 

Judge  Story  says  that,  strong  as  this  language 
is,  it  has  no  coloring  beyond  what  the  naked 
truth  would  justify,  and  even  Washington  himself 
wrote :  ' i  The  Confederation  appears  to  me  to  be 
little  more  than  a  shadow  without  the  substance, 
and  Congress  a  nugatory  body,  their  ordinances 
being  little  attended  to." 

Of  course,  under  such  a  system  our  national 
affairs  drifted  steadily  and  rapidly  from  bad  to 
worse.  Interest  on  the  public  debt  could  not  be 
paid,  nor  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government 
be  provided  for.  The  treaties  which  had  been 
made  could  not  be  carried  out,  and  foreign  nations 
would  not  deal  in  the  way  of  new  treaties  with 
the  envoys  of  a  body,  which  had  no  head  and  no 
power  to  perform  what  they  should  agree  to  in  its 
behalf.  Our  external  commerce  was  at  the  mercy 
of  foreign  nations,  whose  laws  contrived  for  its 
destruction,  Congress  could  do  nothing  to  counter 
act.  And  worst  of  all,  our  domestic  commerce, 
which  between  all  the  citizens  of  one  nation  should 

163 


THE    SUPEEME    COUET 

be  free  and  equal,  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  caprice 
or  selfishness  of  each  individual  State.  There 
were  many  boundary  disputes  between  States 
which  threatened  civil  war.  Federal  laws  were  a 
/  i*ii  ]  dead  letter,  without  Federal  Courts  to  expound 
vl  and  define  their  true  meaning  and  operation,  or 
an  Executive  to  see  that  they  were  properly  exe 
cuted.  There  was  a  general  failure  as  yet  to  real 
ize  in  actual  enjoyment  the  advantages  we  had 
won  by  seven  years  of  war,  and  everything  seemed 
drifting  towards  bankruptcy,  disunion,  and  an 
archy. 

But  these  very  defects  of  the  Confederation, 
and  the  evils  which  resulted  from  them,  demanded 
the  constant  exercise  of  the  best  brains  in  all  the 
States  to  understand  and  to  remedy  them,  and 
opened  a  new  school  for  all  our  Statesmen  in  the 
study  of  Constitutional  Government.  When 
Washington  had  laid  down  his  sword  and  sur 
rendered  his  commission  to  Congress,  after  the 
signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Peace  which  acknowl 
edged  the  independence  of  the  United  States,  he 
exhorted  his  countrymen  by  all  they  held  dear  to 
provide  for  the  establishment  of  a  strong  and 
stable  government  as  the  only  hope  of  retaining 
the  liberties  they  had  won;  and  from  that  hour 
until  the  Federal  Constitution  was  made  and  rati 
fied,  he  and  Hamilton,  and  Franklin  and  Madison, 
and  all  the  other  great  Statesmen  who  made  it 
or  helped  to  secure  its  adoption,  were  engaged  in 
the  constant  study  of  the  principles  of  free  gov 
ernment,  and  in  enforcing  them  upon  the  attention 

164 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

of  their  fellow  citizens,  so  that  they  came  to  the 
performance  of  their  great  duties  in  the  Federal 
Convention  as  graduates  of  the  best  practical 
school  of  Constitutional  Law  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen. 

Their  allotted  task  was  to  create  a  National 
Government  which  should  reach,  for  its  own 
proper  purposes,  by  its  own  power,  every  man 
and  every  foot  of  territory  in  the  whole  United 
States,  and  should  at  the  same  time  leave  un 
touched  and  undiminished  the  complete  control  by 
each  State  of  all  its  internal  and  domestic  af 
fairs  ;  —  which  should  be  entirely  adequate  with 
out  aid  from  the  States,  to  govern  the  people 
effectively  in  all  matters  that  involved  the  general 
interests  of  all,  to  deal  with  foreign  nations  with 
the  whole  power  and  resources  of  the  entire  people 
behind  it,  in  all  the  exigencies  of  Peace  and  War, 
and  to  accomplish  all  this  with  the  least  possible 
vesting  of  arbitrary  power  in  any  department  or 
officer  of  the  new  Government. 

They  differed  in  opinion  and  sentiment  on  many 
points,  but  all  agreed  in  a  supreme  dread  of  arbi 
trary  power,  whether  it  should  be  exercised  by 
the  Executive,  the  Legislative  or  the  Judiciary 
Department,  whether  by  a  single  man,  or  by  a 
majority  of  all,  for  they  considered  that  the 
majority  without  any  restrictions  upon  its  power 
might  become  quite  as  dangerous  as  any  other 
despot.  They  did  not  believe  with  my  Lord  CoVe 
that  absolute  despotic  power  must  in  all  govern 
ments  reside  somewhere.  They  carried  this  dis- 

165 


THE    SUPEEME    COURT 

trust  of  arbitrary  power  so  far  that  they  actually 
tied  the  hands  of  the  people,  whom  they  regarded 
as  the  source  of  all  political  power,  and  deprived 
them  of  the  right  to  consider  any  amendment  of 
the  Constitution,  until  it  should  be  proposed  by 
a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  both  Houses  of  Congress 
or  by  a  Convention  called  by  Congress,  on  the 
application  of  the  Legislatures  of  two-thirds  of 
the  States,  and  deprived  them  of  the  power  of 
voting  directly  upon  any  amendment,  which  could 
only  be  ratified  by  the  Legislatures  or  Conven 
tions  of  three-fourths  of  the  States. 

In  other  words,  the  People  of  the  United  States 
who  ordained  the  Constitution,  deprived  them 
selves  of  the  power  to  modify  it  by  the  direct  vote 
of  a  majority  or  two-thirds  or  even  three-quarters 
of  their  own  number,  whether  that  number  should 
be  three  millions  or  eighty  millions.  They  must 
act  deliberately  and  indirectly  through  Con 
gresses,  Legislatures,  and  Conventions.  Truly  a 
rare  instance  of  political  self-restraint  at  the 
basis  of  free  popular  government. 

One  of  the  best  definitions  of  the  objects  of  such 
government  is  contained  in  the  preamble  of  the 
Constitution :  - 

"  We,  the  People  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  Union,  establish  Justice,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence, 
promote  the  general  welfare  and  secure  the  blessings  of 
liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and 
establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of 
America. " 

166 


THE   SUPREME   COURT 

It  was  to  "  establish  justice  "  for  tlie  people  of 
the  United  States  that  the  Federal  Judiciary, 
with  the  Supreme  Court  as  its  head,  was  created. 
It  forms  the  balance  wheel  by  which  the  affairs 
of  the  Nation  and  its  relation  to  the  States  are 
kept  in  working  order,  and  is  itself  held  in  check 
by  the  power  of  the  President  to  appoint  its  mem 
bers  as  vacancies  may  occur,  and  by  the  power  of 
Congress  to  impeach  them  for  misconduct,  to 
regulate  the  measure  of  its  appellate  jurisdiction, 
and  to  increase  or  diminish  its  numbers.  The  per 
manent  stability  of  the  judicial  power  is  assured 
by  its  being  imbedded  in  the  Constitution,  with  a 
jurisdiction  co-ordinate  with  that  of  the  Executive 
and  Legislative  Departments,  by  the  extreme  dif 
ficulty  in  the  way  of  any  amendment  that  would 
impair  it,  and  by  the  universal  conviction  which 
the  experience  of  a  century  has  produced,  that  its 
continued  existence  with  the  full  enjoyment  of  its 
present  functions  is  absolutely  essential  to  the 
successful  working  of  our  scheme  of  popular  rep 
resentative  government. 

The  great  achievement  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  was  so  to  distribute  the  powers  of 
government  between  the  States  and  the  Nation  as 
to  give  the  latter  supreme  control  over  all  subjects 
that  concerned  the  general  interests  of  all,  and 
reserve  to  each  of  the  former  exclusive  control 
over  local  affairs  which  concerned  only  its  own 
territory  and  people,  and  to  do  this  in  such  a  way 
that  the  State  and  Federal  Administrations 
should  not  clash  in  actual  operation. 

167 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

They  knew  well  the  importance  of  a  distribution 
of  the  powers  of  government  between  the  three 
great  departments.  They  created  a  Congress  on 
which  they  conferred  legislative  powers  over 
eighteen  enumerated  subjects,  necessarily  involv 
ing  the  general  interests  of  the  people  of  all  the 
States  and  essential  to  National  Sovereignty,  in 
cluding  the  levying  and  collection  of  taxes  for 
Federal  purposes,  the  borrowing  of  money,  the 
regulation  of  commerce  with  foreign  nations  and 
among  the  several  States,  the  coining  of  money, 
declaring  war,  raising  and  supporting  armies,  and 
maintaining  a  navy. 

They  placed  such  limits  upon  the  exercise  by 
Congress  of  legislative  power  as  should  prevent 
its  interference  with  legitimate  local  administra 
tion  by  the  States,  or  with  the  fundamental  rights 
of  the  citizens,  and  put  such  prohibitions  upon  the 
legislative  power  of  the  States  as  should  prevent 
their  interference  with  the  general  powers  and 
functions  of  the  Federal  Government. 

They  vested  the  executive  power  of  the  Federal 
Government  in  the  President,  who  was  made  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  and  of  the 
Militia  of  the  States  when  called  into  the  serv 
ice  of  the  United  States.  He  was  granted 
power  to  pardon  offenders  against  the  United 
States,  to  make  treaties,  provided  two-thirds  of 
the  Senate  concur,  to  have  a  veto  power  over  acts 
of  Congress,  which  could  be  overridden  only  by  a 
vote  of  two-thirds  on  reconsideration.  He  was 
also  to  nominate,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 

168 


THE    SUPEEME    COURT 

the  Senate,  Ambassadors,  Judges,  and  all  the 
principal  officers  of  the  United  States,  to  recom 
mend  to  the  consideration  of  Congress  such  meas 
ures  as  he  should  judge  necessary  and  proper,  to 
commission  all  officers  of  the  United  States,  and 
to  take  care  that  the  laws  should  be  faithfully 
executed. 

And,  finally,  to  secure  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  Federal  Government  over  all  matters  of 
Federal  cognizance,  it  was  expressly  provided 
that  "  thisj^cmjjtitut^  the  United 

States  which  shall  be  passed  in  pursuance  thereof, 
and  all  Treaties  made  under  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land,  and  the  judges  of  every  State  shall  be  bound 
thereby,  anything  in  the  Constitution  or  laws  of 
any  State  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding." 
This  making  the  Federal  Constitution  and 
Treaties  made,  and  laws  of  Congress  passed 
under  its  authority,  the  supreme  law  of  the  land 
is  the  key  of  our  dual  system  of  Government,  as 
the  omnipotence  of  Parliament  is  the  key  of  the 
British  Constitution.  But  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  though  supreme  within  the  limits  pre 
scribed,  is  not  omnipotent;  it  must  keep  within 
those  limits. 

By  the  10th  amendment,  passed  immediately 
after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  to  prevent 
Congress  from  meddling  with  the  domestic  con 
cerns  of  the  States,  or  exercising  powers  not 
granted  to  them,  it  was  expressly  provided  that 
the  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by 

169 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States, 
are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the 
People. 

Thus  the  people  of  the  United  States  created 
for  themselves  two  separate  and  distinct  govern 
ments,  each  "  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and 
for  the  people, "  each  independent  and  exclusive 
of  the  other  within  its  own  scope  and  sphere,  and 
each  able,  without  aid  from  the  other,  to  reach  for 
its  own  purposes,  by  its  own  authority,  every  per 
son  and  every  foot  of  land  within  its  territory. 
Complex  as  it  may  appear  to  people  living  under 
other  forms  of  government,  this  dual  system  has 
worked  very  simply,  smoothly,  and  harmoniously 
from  the  beginning  until  now,  except  for  the  single 
occasion  when  the  terrible  question  of  slavery 
proved  to  be  too  much  for  all  the  Departments  of 
Government  combined,  and  could  only  be  settled 
by  our  long  years  of  Civil  War. 

But  how  has  this  marvellous  result  been  accom 
plished?  How  has  it  been  possible  for  these  two 
Governments,  each  of  prescribed  and  limited 
powers,  and  each  department  of  both  similarly 
defined,  to  act  independently  and  at  the  same  time 
harmoniously  over  the  same  people?  By  what 
magical  force  has  each  power,  State  and  Federal, 
been  kept  within  its  own  limits'?  What  has  pre 
vented  constant  and  hopeless  conflict  between 
State  functions  and  officials,  and  Federal  func 
tions  and  officials,  between  State  and  Nation,  and 
between  State  and  State,  originally  thirteen  in 
number  and  now  forty-five?  How  has  it  been 

170 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

possible  to  secure  the  due  protection  of  the  law 
to  the  citizens  of  one  State  in  each  of  the  other 
States,  and  the  rights  ol^-^JJ^i^^SS^^LJP6^ 
prejudice  and  discrimination ^in  any  State,  and 
how  lias"  ffie~fait£"oF" Treaties  been  preserved  in 
every  locality? 

These,  and  a  thousand  other  similar  questions 
and  .doubts  as  to  the  successful  working  of  our 
system,  are  answered  by  pointing  to  the  Supreme 
Court  created  by  the  Constitution,  and  to  the 
Federal  Courts  inferior  to  it  created  by  Congress, 
in  which  the  judicial  power  of  the  United  States 
is  vested,  a  power  which,  as  I  have  said,  is  co 
ordinate  and  co-extensive  with  the  Executive  and 
Legislative.  Over  whatever  region  Congress  may 
attempt  to  legislate,  or  the  President  to  execute 
its  laws,  there  the  judicial  power  extends,  to  pass, 
if  need  be,  upon  the  legality  of  their  acts  and  the 
validity  of  their  laws.  The  Constitution,  and 
each  of  its  provisions,  is  supreme  over  President, 
Congress,  Courts,  and  States,  and  the  valid  laws 
of  Congress,  and  Treaties  made  under  the  author 
ity  of  the  United  States,  are  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land  for  all  its  people,  and  for  the  Courts, 
Legislatures,  and  Governors  of  each  State. 

The  Supremo  Court  is  the  final  judge  of  the 
validity  of  all  laws  passed  by  Congress  or  by  the 
Legislatures  of  each  of  the  forty-five  States,  when 
brought  to  Jjie  test  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  the  legality  of  all  official 
acts  when  brought  to  the  same  test.  Tt  and  tlie 
Federal  Courts  inferior  to  it  furnish  the  vehicle 

171 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

by  which  the  judicial  power  of  the  United  States 
is  carried  into  the  whole  of  its  vast  territory,  to 
administer  justice  within  the  limits  prescribed  to 
it,  to  enforce  the  Federal  laws  and  to  punish 
offenders  against  them. 

The  third  Article  of  the  Constitution  is  mar 
vellously  brief  and  simple.  The  Judges,  accord 
ing  to  that  good  old  rule  which  has  worked  so 
well  in  England  since  the  days  of  William  and 
Mary,  are  to  hold  their  offices  during  good  be 
havior,  and  can  only  be  removed  by  impeach 
ment,  and  their  compensation  shall  not  be  dimin 
ished  during  their  continuance  in  office.  The 
Supreme  Court  has  original  jurisdiction  only  in 
cases  affecting  Ambassadors,  Public  Ministers, 
and  Consuls,  and  in  those  in  which  a  State  shall 
be  a  party.  The  first  branch  of  this  original 
power  has  seldom  been  invoked,  but  over  and  over 
again  a  great  State  has  been  brought  to  its  bar 
by  another  State  to  settle  boundary  disputes,  al 
ways  the  most  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  adjoining 
States,  and  in  each  instance  its  decree  has  been 
submitted  to  with  implicit  obedience  —  a  most 
unique  judicial  power,  and  a  most  convincing  ex 
ample  to  persuade  all  nations  to  settle  these  most 
perilous  questions  by  arbitration. 

It  has  been  well  said  "  that  the  provision  that 
the  judicial  power  created  by  the  people  shall  be 
the  arbiter  between  the  States  themselves,  in  all 
their  controversies  with  each  other,  marks  the 
highest  level  ever  attained  in  the  progress  of 
representative  government. ' ' 

172 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

Tocqueville  says :  "  In  the  nations  of  Europe 
the  Courts  of  Justice  are  only  called  upon  to  try 
the  controversies  of  private  individuals,  but  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  summons 
sovereign  powers  to  its  bar." 

John  Stuart  Mill  declares  it  to  be  "  the  first 
example  of  what  is  now  one  of  the  most  prominent 
wants  of  civilized  society,  a  real  International 
Tribunal. " 

In  all  other  matters  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Supreme  Court  is  only  appellate.  The  judicial 
power  extends  only  to  cases  as  they  arise  between 
party  and  party,  and  in  the  Supreme  Court  as 
they  come  to  it  mostly  by  appeal  from  the  inferior 
Federal  Courts,  or  by  writ  of  error  to  the  State 
Courts. 

The  Courts  of  the  United  States  exercise  no 
supervision  over,  or  interference  with,  the  Presi 
dent  or  Congress,  or  the  Legislatures  of  the 
States.  They  have  no  veto  power.  They  do  not 
lie  in  wait  for  Acts  of  Congress,  to  strangle  them 
at  their  birth.  They  have  no  jurisdiction  to  pro 
nounce  any  Statute,  either  of  a  State  or  of  the 
United  States,  void  because  irreconcilable  with  the 
Constitution,  except  as  they  are  called  upon  to 
adjudge  the  legal  rights  of  litigants  in  actual  con 
troversies.  They  simply  pass  upon  the  rights  of 
parties  as  they  come  before  them,  and  if  a  pro 
vision  of  the  Constitution,  or  of  a  Federal  Statute, 
or  a  Treaty  is  invoked  for  or  against  a  right 
claimed  or  denied,  they  interpret  the  Constitution, 
the  Law,  or  the  Treaty,  and  determine  the  right. 

173 


THE    SUPEEME    COURT 

In  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  if  an  Act  of 
Congress  or  of  a  State  Legislature  is  claimed  to 
be  invalid,  or  an  official  Act  is  claimed  to  be  illegal 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  decision  of  that  question  is  vital  and  neces 
sary  to  determine  the  rights  of  the  parties,  they 
perform  the  ordinary  duty  of  interpretation,  and 
declare  the  validity  or  invalidity  of  the  Act,  and 
so  determine  the  right  between  the  parties  before 
them  in  that  particular  case,  and  for  no  other 
purpose,  and  this  may  happen  months  or  years 
after  the  enactment  of  the  Statute. 

The  Supreme  Court  will  perform  no  duties  ex 
cept  judicial  duties.  So,  when  in  1793  President 
Washington  requested  the  opinions  of  the  Judges 
on  the  construction  of  the  Treaty  with  France  of 
1778,  they  declined  to  comply,  and.  when  an  early 
Congress  enacted  that  certain  pension  claims 
should  be  considered  and  passed  upon  by  the 
Federal  Courts,  the  Supreme  Court  upheld  them 
in  refusing  to  act  under  it,  upon  the  ground  that 
the  power  proposed  to  be  conferred  was  not  ju 
dicial  gower  within  the  meaning  of  the  Constitu- 
tion.rlSTor  will  the  Court  give  a  hearing  to  a  fic 
titious  or  collusive  cnse,  contrived  to  raise  a  ques- 
1  tion  as  to  the  validity  of  a  Statute. 

^Keeping  strictly  within  the  limit  prescribed  to 
it  of  exercising  only  judicial  power,  the  Federal 
Judiciary  has  steadily  refrained  from  exercising 
any  political  power,  which  belongs  exclusively  to 
Congress  and  the  President,  and  so  it  has  been 
brought  into  no  collision  with  the  other  depart- 

174 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

ments.  It  will  not  even  indulge  in  discussions,  or 
express  opinions  upon  purely  political  questions. 

All  attempts,  for  instance,  to  induce  it  to  inter 
fere  either  to  restrain  or  compel  the  President  in 
the  exercise  of  his  power  to  see  that  the  laws  are 
faithfully  executed  have  failed.  In  the  case  of 
foreign  nations,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  Sovereign 
States  of  the  Union,  the  Government  acknowl 
edged  by  the  President,  or  by  the  President  and 
Congress,  is  always  recognized  by  the  Supreme 
Court.  In  all  spfth  gT^ffifinna  Ag  »~*  pnraly  p^;t- 
ical  it  holds  itself  bound  by  the  acts  of  the  otner 
departments. 

So  the  question  whether  and  upon  what  condi 
tions  aliens  shall  be  expelled  or  excluded  from  the 
United  States,  belonging  to  the  political  depart 
ments  of  the  Government,  the  Court  refused  to 
express  any  opinion  upon  the  wisdom,  the  policy, 
or  the  justice  of  the  measures  enacted  by  Con 
gress  in  the  exercise  of  the  powers  confined  to  it 
by  the  Constitution  over  that  subject.  Thus  it 
constantly  sets  the  example  to  each  of  the  other 
departments  of  the  Government  of  minding  its 
own  business,  and  keeping  strictly  within  its  as 
signed  province. 

But,  careful  as  the  Judges  are  to  confine  the 
exercise  of  the  Federal  judicial  power  to  cases 
as  they  arise,  that  power  does  extend  to  "  all 
cases  of  law  and  equity  arising  under  the  Con 
stitution,  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and 
Treaties  made  under  their  authority,  to  all  cases 
affecting  Ambassadors,  other  public  Ministers 

175 


THE    SUPEEME    COUET 

and  Consuls,  and  to  all  cases  of  Admiralty  and 
Maritime  jurisdiction;  "  and  whenever  any  such 
case  does  come  before  the  Supreme  Court  it  must 
take  cognizance  of  it,  and  it  cannot  shrink,  and 
never  has  shrunk,  from  determining  the  question 
of  private  right  so  arising.  It  is  under  these 
clauses  that  its  unique  and  peculiar  function 
of  testing  the  validity  of  State  Laws  and  Con 
stitutions  and  of  Federal  Statutes,  and  the  le 
gality  of  the  acts  of  State  and  Federal  officers 
arises. 

The  remainder  of  the  Federal  judicial  power 
depends  wholly  upon  the  character  of  the  parties 
to  the  controversy.  It  extends  "  to  controversies 
to  which  the  United  States  shall  be  a  party." 
This  enables  the  Federal  Courts  to  enforce  the 
Acts  of  Congress,  civil  and  criminal,  against  all 
persons  within  the  realm;  "  to  controversies  be 
tween  two  or  more  States, "  the  purpose  of  which 
I  have  already  indicated,  as  making  the  Supreme 
Court  the  Arbitrator  and  Peacemaker  between 
^Sovereign  States;  to  "  controversies  between  a 
State  and  citizens  t>f  another  State,  between  citi 
zens  of  different  States,  between  citizens  of  the 
same  State  claiming  lands  under  grants  of  differ 
ent  States,  and  between  a  State,  or  the  citizens 
thereof,  and  foreign  States,  citizens,  or  subjects." 
It  was  wisely  concluded  that  in  all  such  cases 
justice  would  be  safer  and  surer,  against  State  or 
local  interest,  prejudice  or  passion,  in  Courts 
representing  and  vested  with  the  authority  of 
the  whole  nation,  than  in  the  Courts  of  the  State 

176 


THE   SUPREME    COURT 

of  an  interested  party,  and  that  foreigners  espe 
cially  should  have  the  right  to  have  their  causes 
heard  and  decided  by  National  Tribunals. 

These  clauses,  which  make  jurisdiction  depend 
ent  upon  the  citizenship  or  character  of  the  par 
ties,  have  been  a  prolific  source  of  litigation  in 
the  Federal  Courts,  have  opened  to  them  the  en 
tire  field  of  law  and  equity;  have  extended  their 
adjudications  to  the  whole  body  of  jurisprudence, 
and  have  given  to  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  by  reason  of  the  weight  and  force  of  char 
acter  of  the  Court  and  its  members,  a  command 
ing  authority  with  the  State  Courts,  and  persua 
sive  influence  with  foreign  tribunals.  But  in  this 
department  of  its  functions  the  Supreme  Court 
does  not  differ,  in  the  scope  of  its  powers  and 
duties,  from  the  Courts  of  last  resort  of  other 
nations,  and  its  distinctive  and  peculiar  character 
is  not  involved. 

The  power  of  the  Court  to  declare  State  and 
Federal  Statutes,  and  the  acts  of  the  National  and 
State  Executive  officers  invalid,  as  being  in  vio 
lation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
naturally  attracts  the  attention  of  foreign  ob 
servers. 

In  the  one  hundred  and  twelve  years  of  its 
existence  the  Court  has  pronounced  twenty-one 
Acts  of  Congress,  and  more  than  two  hundred' 
State  Statutes,  to  be  in  conflict  with  the  Federal 
Constitution,  and  therefore  invalid,  and  in  each 
instance  there  has  been  complete  and  peaceful 
acquiescence  in  the  decision.  So  that  instead 

177 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

of  being  a  disturbing  element,  the  exercise  of  this 
power  confirms  the  peaceful  relations  between  the 
States  and  the  Nation,  and  between  the  States  as 
among  themselves,  protects  foreign  nations  from 
the  breach  of  Treaties,  and  conserves  the  rights, 
of  property  and  contract,  and  the  fundamental 
rights  of  personal  liberty. 

I  may  not,  perhaps,  do  better  than  to  give  you 
several  examples  of  the  exercise  of  this  whole 
some,  beneficial,  and  altogether  conservative 
power. 

The  Constitution  provides  that ' '  no  State  shall 
pass  any  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  con 
tracts,"  and  the  aid  of  the  Court  has  often  been 
invoked  for  protection  against  the  attempts  of 
States  to  violate  this  prohibition. 

The  framers  of  the  Constitution  believed,  and 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  view  of  the 
successful  operation  of  this  prohibition  for  more 
than  a  century,  believe  that  the  States  ought  not 
to  be  permitted  to  intervene  between  the  parties 
to  a  contract,  to  destroy  or  impair  the  binding 
force  of  terms  by  which  they  have  agreed  to  be 
bound,  and  that  such  intervention  is  contrary  to 
the  principles  of  popular  government. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  days  that  tried  men's  souls 
before  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
many  attempts  had  been  made  by  States  to  inter 
vene  for  this  purpose,  which  doubtless  led  to  the 
adoption  of  this  clause. 

Mr.  Hamilton,  in  the  "  Federalist,"  classing 
such  laws  with  Bills  of  Attainder  and  Ex  post 

178 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

facto  laws,  which  are  prohibited  by  the  same 
clause,  says :  - 

"  Laws  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts  are  con 
trary  to  the  first  principles  of  the  social  compact,  and 
to  every  principle  of  sound  legislation.  They  are  pro 
hibited  by  the  spirit  and  scope  of  the  State  Constitutions. 
Our  own  experience  has  taught  us,  nevertheless,  that 
additional  fences  against  these  dangers  ought  not  to  be 
omitted.  Very  properly,  therefore,  have  the  Convention 
added  this  constitutional  bulwark  in  favor  of  personal 
security  and  private  rights.  And  I  am  much  deceived 
if  they  have  not,  in  so  doing,  as  faithfully  consulted  the 
genuine  sentiments  as  the  undoubted  interests  of  their 
constituents.  The  sober  people  of  America  are  weary 
of  the  fluctuating  policy  which  has  directed  the  public 
councils.  They  have  seen  with  regret  and  indignation 
that  sudden  changes  and  legislative  interferences  in 
cases  affecting  personal  rights,  become  jobs  in  the  hands 
of  enterprising  and  influential  speculators,  and  snares 
to  the  more  industrious  and  less  informed  part  of  the 
community.  They  have  seen,  too,  that  one  legislative 
interference  is  but  the  first  link  of  a  long  chain  of  repeti 
tions,  every  subsequent  interference  being  naturally  pro 
duced  by  the  effects  of  the  preceding.  They  very  rightly 
infer,  therefore,  that  some  thorough  reform  is  wanting 
which  will  banish  speculations  on  public  measures,  in 
spire  a  general  prudence  and  industry,  and  give  a  regu 
lar  course  to  the  business  of  Society. " 

In  the  celebrated  Dartmouth  College  case  the 
protection  of  this  clause  was  invoked  by  the 
Trustees  of  the  College,  to  recover  its  property 
from  a  person  who  held  it  for  new  Trustees  under 

179 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

the  authority  of  a  law  of  the  State  of  New 
Hampshire. 

In  1769,  King  George  the  Third  by  Eoyal  Char 
ter  incorporated  twelve  persons,  therein  named 
as  "  The  Trustees  of  Dartmouth  College, "  grant 
ing  to  them  and  their  successors  the  usual  cor 
porate  privileges  and  powers,  and  authorizing  the 
Trustees  who  were  to  govern  the  College  to  fill 
up  all  vacancies  which  may  be  created  in  their 
own  body.  The  application  by  the  Founder,  who 
had  already  established  the  College,  was  for  a 
Charter  to  incorporate  a  religious  and  literary 
institution,  and  stated  that  large  contributions 
had  been  made  for  the  object,  which  would  be  con 
ferred  upon  the  Corporation  as  soon  as  it  was 
created,  and  on  the  faith  of  the  Charter  the  prop 
erty  was  conveyed  to  it.  After  the  revolution,  in 
1816,  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  passed 
an  Act  increasing  the  number  of  Trustees  to 
twenty-one,  giving  the  appointment  of  the  addi 
tional  members  to  the  Governor  of  the  State,  and 
creating  a  Board  of  Overseers  with  power  to 
inspect  and  control  the  most  important  acts  of 
the  Trustees. 

"~~£3mrT;tmg  that  the  provision  of  the  Constitu 
tion  embraced  only  contracts  which  respect  prop 
erty  or  some  object  of  value,  and  which  confer 
rights  which  may  be  asserted  in  a  Court  of  Jus 
tice,  and  did  not  refer  to  grants  of  political  power 
or  to  acts  creating  institutions  to  be  employed  in 
the  administration  of  Government  or  of  public 
property,  or  in  which  the  State  as  a  Government 

180 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

was  alone  interested,  the  Court  after  most  mature 
consideration  reached  the  conclusion,  that  the 
Charter  was  a  contract  which  secured  to  the  Trus 
tees  the  property  and  control  of  the  College  —  a 
contract  made  upon  valuable  consideration  —  for 
the  security  and  disposition  of  property,  and  on 
the  faith  of  which  real  and  personal  property  had 
been  conveyed  to  the  Institution,  and  therefore  a 
contract,  the  obligation  of  which  could  not  be  im 
paired  without  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States. 

It  held  that  the  Statute  of  New  Hampshire  did 
impair  it,  and  was  therefore  void,  and  rendered 
judgment  restoring  the  property  and  control  of 
the  College  to  the  Trustees  who  represented  the 
Founder.  The  opinions  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall 
and  Judge  Story  are  masterpieces  of  judicial 
reasoning,  and  the  principles  laid  down  by  them 
have  ever  since  prevailed.  In  fifty-six  cases  de 
cided  by  the  Court,  Acts  of  State  Legislatures 
have  been  declared  invalid  in  accordance  with 
these  principles,  because  they  impaired  the  obli 
gation  of  contracts,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that,  instead  of  having  a  disturbing  or  disinte 
grating  effect  upon  civil  society,  these  decisions 
have  done  more  than  any  other  single  cause  to 
inculcate  a  reverence  for  the  law,  and  for  the  sanc 
tity  of  the  right  of  private  property  which  is  one 
of  the  chief  objects  of  free  government. 

It  is  true  that  the  constitutional  prohibition 
against  laws  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts 
does  not  expressly  apply  also  to  Congress.  In  the 

181 


THE    SUPREME   COURT 

Convention  Mr.  Gerry,  a  prominent  delegate  from 
Massachusetts,  made  a  motion  that  Congress 
ought  to  be  laid  under  the  like  prohibition,  but 
found  no  seconder.  But  in  the  amendments 
which  were  proposed  by  Congress  at  its  first  ses 
sion,  almost  as  conditions  on  which  many  of  the 
States  had  adopted  it  and  which  were  quickly 
ratified,  other  restraints  were  laid  upon  Congress 
which  had  the  like  effect.  It  was  expressly  de 
clared  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life, 
liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law, 
nor  shall  private  property  be  taken  for  public 
use  without  just  compensation^  and  Congress  is 
bound  by  these  prohibitions.  No  matter  what  the 
emergency,  it  cannot  violate  these  fundamental 
principles  of  personal  rights. 

The  Court  has  held  tKat  the  United  States  can 
not,  any  more  than  a  State,  interfere  with  private 
rights  except  for  legitimate  governmental  pur 
poses,  that  they  are  as  much  bound  by  their  con 
tracts  as  are  individuals,  that  if  they  repudiate 
their  obligations  it  is  as  much  repudiation,  with 
all  the  wrong  and  reproach  that  term  implies,  as 
it  would  be  if  the  repudiator  had  been  a  State,  a 
Municipality,  or  a  citizen. 

But  strict  and  earnest  as  the  Court  has  been  in 
enforcing  this  constitutional  prohibition  against 
laws  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts,  it  has 
been  ready  to  recognize  and  give  full  force  and 
effect  to  the  Statutes  of  other  nations  which  im 
posed  no  such  prohibition  on  the  law-making 
power. 

182 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

The  Canada  Southern  Railway  Company,  under 
its  Charter  granted  by  the  Dominion  of  Canada, 
had  issued  its  bonds  at  a  high  rate  of  interest, 
and  had  sold  them  in  New  York  to  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  but  getting  into  difficulties  the 
Company  devised  a  scheme  of  arrangement,  which 
was  enacted  by  the  Dominion  Parliament,  by 
which  the  interest  on  the  bonds  outstanding  was 
scaled  down  to  a  lower  rate  without  the  consent 
of  the  bondholders,  a  clear  case  of  impairing  the 
obligation  of  a  contract.  The  bondholders  ap 
pealed  to  the  Supreme  Court,  which  held  that  the 
"  Arrangement  Act  "  was  valid  in  Canada,  and 
bound  non-assenting  bondholders  there  by  force 
of  the  scheme ;  that  as  it  did  have  that  effect  in 
Canada,  the  Courts  of  the  United  States  should 
give  it  the  same  effect,  even  as  against  citizens 
of  the  United  States  whose  rights  accrued  in  the 
United  States  before  its  passage ;  that  there  was 
no  constitutional  prohibition  in  Canada  against 
the  passing  of  laws  impairing  the  obligation  of 
contracts,  and  that,  under  these  circumstances, 
the  true  spirit  of  international  comity  required 
that  schemes  of  this  character,  legalized  at  home, 
should  be  recognized  in  other  countries. 

The  clause  of  the  Constitution  giving  Congress 
the  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign 
nations,  and  between  the  States,  has  been  another 
fruitful  source  of  business  in  the  Supreme  Court 
in  the  way  of  testing  the  validity  of  State  laws. 

At  the  outset  of  steam  navigation,  the  State  of 
New  York  undertook  to  reward  Robert  Fulton  for 

183 


THE    SUPREME    COUET 

his  invention  and  enterprise  by  an  Act  giving 
him  the  monopoly  of  navigating  by  fire  or  steam 
all  the  waters  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State. 
Under  this  Act  the  Assignee  of  Fulton  had  com 
menced  running  a  line  of  boats  between  certain 
ports  of  New  Jersey  and  New  York,  and  obtained 
from  the  State  Courts  of  New  York  an  injunction 
to  restrain  the  owners  of  an  opposition  line  of 
boats,  put  on  between  the  same  ports,  from  enter 
ing  the  waters  of  New  York  State  with  their  boats. 
But  the  Supreme  Court  held,  upon  appeal,  that 
the  New  York  enactment  was  in  conflict  with  the 
power  of  Congress  to  regulate  commerce,  and 
with  its  Acts  in  relation  to  commerce,  and  upon 
this  ground  vacated  the  injunction  and  established 
the  right  of  all  vessels  to  enter  the  port  of  New 
York  under  the  authority  of  Congress.  It  was 
held  that,  by  virtue  of  the  constitutional  clause 
referred  to,  Congress  had  exclusive  authority  to 
regulate  commerce  in  all  its  forms  in  all  the  navi 
gable  waters  of  the  United  States,  their  bays, 
rivers,  and  harbors,  and  to  make  navigation  free 
to  all  without  any  restraint  or  interference  from 
any  State  Legislature. 

By  a  long  series  of  decisions  that  followed 
under  the  commerce  clause  the  Court,  with  inflex 
ible  firmness  and  far-reaching  sagacity,  estab 
lished  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  nation  over 
the  whole  subject  of  commerce,  navigation,  travel, 
and  intercourse  between  the  States,  which  went 
far  to  strengthen  the  power  of  the  Union.  At 
the  same  time  they  secured  to  the  citizens  of 

184 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

every  State  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  citizens  in  all  the  other  States, 
and  also  that  absolute  freedom  of  internal  trade 
throughout  the  country  which  has  so  vastly  pro 
moted  the  prosperity  of  the  people. 

The  influence  of  the  Court  in  maintaining  the 
faith  of  Treaties  has  been  powerful  and  far 
reaching.  By  the  Treaty  of  Peace  with  Great 
Britain,  in  1783,  it  was  agreed  that  British  cred 
itors  should  * '  meet  with  no  lawful  impediments  ' ' 
in  the  collection  of  their  claims;  and  the  Consti 
tution  said  that  Treaties,  like  laws,  made  under 
its  authority,  should  be  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land.  Various  attempts  had  been  made  by  sev 
eral  States,  before  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  to  impede  or  prevent  the  collection  of  such 
claims.  The  subject  provoked  bitter  and  exciting 
controversies,  but  the  Court,  against  the  conten 
tion  of  John  Marshall  himself,  then  at  the  Bar, 
held  that  the  Treaty  was  supreme,  and  equal  in 
its  effect  to  the  Constitution  itself,  in  overruling 
all  State  laws  upon  the  subject,  and  that  its  words 
were  as  strong  as  the  wit  of  man  could  devise  to 
override  all  obstacles  directed  against  the  recov 
ery  of  such  debts.  Of  course,  any  such  law  passed 
by  a  State  after  the  Treaty  contrary  to  its  terms 
would  be  void. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  illustration  of  the 
power  of  the  Court  to  declare  Acts  of  Congress 
itself  invalid,  as  contrary  to  the  Constitution,  was 
the  celebrated  Income  Tax  case.  Congress  in 
1894  had  passed  a  General  Revenue  Law,  certain 

185 


THE    SUPREME    COUET 

sections  of  which  imposed  an  Income  Tax  upon 
all  incomes  exceeding  a  certain  amount  named. 
This  tax  was  levied  indiscriminately  upon  all  in 
comes  alike,  from  whatever  source  derived, 
whether  from  the  rents  of  real  estate,  the  income 
of  invested  personal  property,  or  from  earnings. 
But  the  Constitution  had  ordained  that  direct 
taxes  should  be  apportioned  among  the  several 
States  according  to  the  numbers  of  their  respect 
ive  populations,  in  contradistinction  to  duties, 
imposts,  and  excises,  which  should  be  uniform 
throughout  the  United  States. 

It  was  contended  by  those  who  challenged  the 
validity  of  the  law,  that  taxes  on  rent,  and  taxes 
on  the  income  derived  from  invested  personal 
property,  were  direct  taxes  within  the  meaning 
of  the  Constitution,  and  that  instead  of  being 
levied  uniformly,  man  for  man,  throughout  the 
United  States,  they  should  have  been  apportioned 
among  the  several  States  according  to  popula 
tion.  The  difference  was  very  considerable  and 
substantial.  The  effect  of  the  Act,  if  sustained, 
would  be  to  throw  the  principal  burden  of  the 
Tax  upon  a  few  large  States,  in  which  the  relative 
proportion  of  wealth  was  in  excess  of  the  relative 
proportion  of  population,  and  to  exempt  the  other 
States  proportionally  from  their  constitutional 
share  of  the  Tax.  The  opponents  of  the  Income 
Tax  also  insisted  that  any  inequality,  which 
should  arise  from  its  being  apportioned  among 
the  States  according  to  population,  was  an  ine 
quality  contemplated  by  the  f ramers  of  the  Con- 

186 


THE    SUPEEME    COURT 

stitution,  and  was  intended  to  prevent  an  attack 
upon  accumulated  property  by  mere  force  of 
numbers. 

The  Court,  against  vehement  and  powerful  op 
position  at  the  Bar,  and  from  a  formidable  mi 
nority  of  the  members  of  the  Court  itself,  took  this 
view,  and  declared  the  Tax  to  have  been  laid  un 
constitutionally,  so  far  as  it  affected  incomes 
from  rents  and  from  invested  personal  property. 
And  as  the  invalid  portions  constituted  so  large  a 
proportion  of  the  whole  Income  Tax  levied  by  the 
Act,  that  Congress  could  not  be  deemed  to  have 
intended  to  impose  the  rest  without  them,  it 
further  adjudged  that  all  the  Income  Tax  pro 
visions  of  the  Act,  which  constituted  a  single  and 
entire  scheme,  must  be  held  void. 

There  were  some  popular  protests  against  the 
decision,  and  direful  prophecies  that  it  would 
disable  the  nation  in  future  emergencies  from 
raising  the  revenue  it  needed,  but  no  such  results 
have  yet  appeared.  Congress,  in  its  subsequent 
enactments,  has  conformed  to  the  decision,  and 
when  the  war  with  Spain  came  on,  and  an  im 
mensely  enlarged  revenue  was  needed  at  once,  it 
found  no  difficulty  in  imposing  taxes  constitu 
tionally  and  so  successfully  that,  the  year  after 
the  war  closed,  the  Treasury  was  found  to  be 
burdened  with  so  great  a  surplus  that  the  entire 
body  of  war  taxes  had  to  be  repealed  at  once. 

The  same  case  contains  a  fine  illustration  of 
the  power  of  the  Court  to  protect  the  States  in 
the  exercise  of  their  legitimate  power  to  manage 

187 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

their  own  affairs  from  interference  by  the  Fed 
eral  Government.  The  Income  Tax  was  levied 
also  upon  income  derived  from  the  interest  upon 
bonds  issued  by  Municipal  Corporations,  which 
were  but  civil  divisions  of  the  States,  and  the 
Court  held  that  as  a  tax  upon  the  income  of 
Municipal  bonds  tended  to  cripple  the  power  of 
the  local  authorities  to  raise  money  for  the  pur 
poses  of  local  government,  it  was  not  within  the 
power  of  the  Federal  Government  to  impose  it, 
any  more  than  it  would  be  constitutional  for  the 
States  to  impair  the  power  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  to  raise  money  for  Federal  purposes  by 
taxing  its  bonds. 

By  the  adoption  of  the  14th  Amendment,  to 
meet  the  conditions  resulting  from  the  abolition 
of  slavery  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  new 
restraints  were  imposed  upon  the  States,  the 
consideration  of  which  has  largely  occupied  the 
attention  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

It  provides  that  "  No  State  shall  make  or  en 
force  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privileges 
or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States; 
nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any  person  of  life, 
liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law; 
nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws." 

Doubtless  this  amendment  was  primarily  in 
tended  for  the  protection  of  the  newly  emanci 
pated  slaves,  especially  in  the  States  where  they 
had  so  long  been  held  in  bondage,  but  in  its  lan 
guage  there  is  no  distinction  of  race  or  color, 

188 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

and  the  Court  held  that  it  could  make  no  such 
distinction  in  its  application,  which  must  be  made 
alike  to  all  cases  and  subjects  that  came  within 
the  scope  of  its  language  in  its  natural  mean 
ing. 

It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  from  these 
numerous  restraints  imposed  by  the  Constitution 
upon  the  power  of  the  States,  and  the  very  con 
siderable  number  of  cases  (exceeding  two  hundred 
in  all)  in  which  the  Supreme  Court  has  pro 
nounced  their  Statutes  invalid,  that  the  Court  is 
biassed  against  the  States,  or  inclined  unduly  to 
enforce  the  limits  imposed  upon  them.  On  the 
contrary,  it  has  been  quite  as  jealous  and  careful 
to  uphold  and  maintain  the  reserved  rights  of  the 
States  in  all  matters  of  local  and  domestic  con 
cern,  and  to  protect  them  from  violation  by  the 
Federal  Government,  as  it  has  been  to  maintain 
the  exclusive  province  of  Congress  in  national 
concerns  against  intrusion  by  the  State  Legisla 
tures. 

It  has  endeavored,  with  success,  to  maintain 
the  just  and  exact  balance  of  power  between  them 
as  prescribed  by  the  Constitution.  As  against  the 
two  hundred  cases  in  which  State  laws  have  been 
invalidated  by  its  judgments,  vastly  more  numer 
ous  cases  will  be  found,  in  its  reports,  in  which 
State  laws  have  been  maintained  by  it  against 
attack  on  the  ground  that  they  involved  a  violation 
of  the  Federal  restraints.  If,  then,  it  be  asked  - 
why  has  it  only  pronounced  twenty-one  Acts  of 
Congress  invalid  on  constitutional  grounds,  while 

189 


THE    SUPEEME    COURT 

two  hundred  State  laws  have  been  condemned? 
the  answer  is  that  there  are  forty-five  States  and 
only  one  Congress,  and  that  the  members  and 
Committees  of  Congress  are  much  more  familiar 
with  the  Federal  Constitution  than  those  of  a 
State  Legislature,  who  naturally  look  first  to  that 
of  their  own  State.  It  is  notable,  too,  that  the 
legislators  of  some  States  must  be  much  more 
studious  of  the  Federal  Constitution  than  others, 
for  while  Louisiana,  which  became  a  State  in  1812, 
and  from  its  French  origin  has  retained  the  civil 
law  instead  of  the  common  law,  has  had  twenty 
of  its  laws  pronounced  invalid  for  violation  of  the 
Constitution,  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  original 
thirteen  States,  has  only  suffered  twice  in  this 
way  in  her  whole  history. 

Congress  is,  of  course,  in  the  first  instance  the 
judge  of  the  constitutionality  of  its  own  Acts,  and 
its  members  being  mostly  lawyers,  are  familiar 
with  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution. 
The  cardinal  and  wholesome  rule  of  the  Court  has 
been,  not  to  pronounce  either  a  State  or  Federal 
Law  invalid  on  constitutional  grounds  unless  the 
violation  is  clearly  established,  that  the  presump 
tion  is  in  favor  of  the  validity  of  a  Statute,  and 
that  this  continues  until  the  contrary  is  plainly 
demonstrated. 

The  Supreme  Court  has  felt  that  one  branch 
of  the  Government  cannot  encroach  on  the  domain 
of  another  without  danger,  and  that  the  safety  of 
our  institutions  depends  in  no  small  degree  on  a 
strict  observance  of  this  salutary  rule.  It  speaks 

190 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

volumes  for  the  wisdom  and  caution  of  the  Court 
which  is  vested  with  this  remarkable  and  fascinat 
ing  power,  that  in  so  great  a  mass  of  State  legis 
lation,  some  of  it  crude  and  undigested,  consist 
ing  of  thousands  of  volumes,  it  has  not  found  it 
necessary  to  exercise  the  power  much  more  fre 
quently. 

It  has  been  a  source  of  frequent  wonder  to 
foreign  observers  that  a  written  Constitution, 
which  was  framed  in  the  18th  century  for  thir 
teen  feeble  States,  with  three  millions  of  people 
of  substantially  uniform  wealth  or  poverty,  scat 
tered  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and  for  whose 
government  it  was  regarded  as  a  precarious  ex 
periment,  should  be  found  to  answer  as  well  in  the 
20th  century  for  the  needs  of  a  great  nation  of 
eighty  millions  in  forty-five  States,  occupying  the 
breadth  of  the  Continent,  with  gigantic  accumula 
tions  of  individual  and  corporate  property,  with 
conflicting  interests  and  sentiments,  and  wide 
differences  of  social  condition. 

There  was  much  debate  in  the  discussions  which 
resulted  in  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
whether  the  Government  which  it  called  into  being 
could  reach  and  control  even  a  people  that  was 
expected  to  occupy  the  territory  which  the  Treaty 
of  Peace  of  1783  secured  to  the  United  States, 
which  extended  only  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  from  the  lakes  to  the 
northern  boundary  of  Florida.  Since  that  time 
our  territory  has  expanded  to  more  than  four 
times  its  original  area,  and  now  embraces  insular 

191 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

possessions  of  vast  extent,  at  enormous  distance 
from  the  seat  of  Government  and  half  way  round 
the  globe. 

The  fundamental  difficulties  of  time  and  space 
have  been  overcome  by  the  triumphs  of  steam  and 
electricity,  wholly  unforeseen  and  unexpected  in 
1787,  but  which  now,  in  the  case  of  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  alike,  have  rendered 
possible  the  administration  of  Government  from 
London  or  from  Washington  on  any  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface.  At  the  time  of  the  adoption 
of  our  Constitution  it  took  about  as  long  to  travel 
the  length  or  breadth  of  the  then  United  States 
as  it  does  now  to  go  from  New  York  to  Manila, 
or  from  London  to  Pekin,  and  orders  of  either 
Government  which  then  would  have  taken  months 
to  transmit,  now  reach  their  destination  so  as  to 
be  put  in  execution  at  the  other  end  of  the  world 
in  a  few  hours,  and  sometimes  in  a  few  min 
utes. 

But  in  our  case,  we  can  account  for  the  fact 
that  a  written  Constitution,  instead  of  being  torn 
asunder  and  left  by  the  way  as  the  Nation  ex 
panded,  as  new  and  wholly  unexpected  conditions 
arose,  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  Nation, 
like  the  hide  of  an  animal  from  its  birth  to  its 
maturity,  so  that  it  still  embraces  and  covers  the 
whole  of  our  vast  national  life.  We  owe  it,  first, 
to  the  wisdom  of  its  framers,  who  inserted  in  it 
only  fundamental  rules  and  principles,  generally 
and  briefly  expressed,  leaving  it  always  to  Con 
gress  to  fill  in  and  provide  for  all  details;  and 

192 


THE    SUPREME    COUET 

secondly,  to  the  vigorous  and  masterly  manner  In 
which  the  Supreme  Court  has  exercisedjts  essen 
tial  and  lawful  function  of  construction.  By  this 
it  lias  applied  .the  whole  instrument  and  each  of 
its  parts  to  new  conditions  as  they  arose,  and 
has  developed  and  strongly  asserted  the  inherent 
.powers  of  sovereignty  intended  to  be  vested  in 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  neces 
sarily  resulting  from  their  existence  as  a  Nation. 
It  was  our  happy  fortune  that  for  thirty-four 
years,  in  that  critical  period  of  our  history  which 
was  to  determine  whether  we  were  to  be  a  great 
and  powerful  Nation,  adequate  for  all  the  needs 
of  a  first-class  Power  in  the  world,  or  only  a  league 
of  States  like  the  old  Confederation,  we  had  the 
benefit  of  the  broad  and  robust  intellect  of  Chief 
Justice  Marshall,  to  enforce  the  liberal  principles 
of  construction  which  the  genius  of  Hamilton  had 
laid  down. 

In  a  single  paragraph  he  states  the  whole  the 
ory  upon  which  the  Court  has  administered  the 
Constitution,  and  fitted  it  to  the  growing  wants 
and  changing  conditions  of  the  Nation :  — 


"  The  Government  is  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  one 
of  enumerated  powers.  The  principle  that  it  can  exer 
cise  only  the  powers  granted  to  it  is  now  universally  ad 
mitted.  But  the  question  respecting  the  extent  of  the 
powers  actually  granted  is  perpetually  arising,  and  will 
probably  continue  to  arise,  as  long  as  our  system  shall 
exist.  The  powers  of  the  Government  are  limited,  and 
its  powers  are  not  to  be  transcended.  But  the  sound 

193 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

construction  of  the  Constitution  must  allow  to  the 
National  Legislature  \that  discretion  with  respect  to  the 
means  by  which  the  powers  it  confers  are  to  be  carried 
into  execution,  which  will  enable  that  body  to  perform 
the  high  duties  assigned  to  it,  in  a  manner  most  bene 
ficial  to  the  people.  Let  the  end  be  legitimate,  let  it  be 
within  the  scope  of  the  Constitution,  and  all  means  which 
are  appropriate,  which  are  plainly  adapted  to  that  end, 
and  which  are  not  prohibited,  but  are  consistent  with  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  are  constitutional/' 


Hamilton,  in  the  "  Federalist,"  declared  that 
"  the  judiciary  is  beyond  comparison  the  weakest 
of  the  three  departments  of  power;  that  it  can 
never  attack  with  success  either  of  the  other  two ; 
and  that  all  possible  care  is  requisite  to  enable 
it  to  defend  itself  against  their  attacks."  Mon 
tesquieu,  whose  works,  with  Blackstone's,  were 
the  text-books  of  constitutional  liberty  which  the 
framers  had  constantly  in  hand,  declared  that 
66  the  judicial  power  is  next  to  nothing."  And  it 
was  said  by  another  French  publicist,  "  It  has 
no  guards,  palaces,  or  treasures,  no  arms  but 
truth  and  wisdom,  and  no  splendor  but  the 
justice  and  publicity* of  its  judgments."  But  the 
Supreme  Court,  sustained  generally  by  the  confi 
dence"  and -afFection  of  the  people;  ias'more^an 
held  its  own.  Keeping  carefully  within  its  own 
limits,  it  has  for  the  most  part  labored  to  keep 
the  other  departments  of  Government  within 
theirs,  and  the  powers  of  the  States  and  of  the 
Nation  from  coming  into  conflict.  In  its  hands 

194 


THE    SUPREME    COURT 

the  judicial  power  has  been  the  force  of  gravita 
tion  which  has  kept  each  member  of  our  federal 
system  in  its  proper  orbit,  and  maintained  the      / 
essential  harmony  of  the  whole. 

The  closing  scene  in  the  Federal  Convention, 
which  made  the  Court  in  a  way  the  guardian  of 
Hie  Constitution,  will  be  ever  memorable.  After 
months  of  discussion,  sometimes  violent,  more 
than  once  approaching  the  very  brink  of  dissolu 
tion,  in  hopeless  despair  of  coming  to  any  agree 
ment,  at  last  the  grand  triumph  of  compromise 
and  mutual  concession  was  accomplished,  and  the 
members  met  to  affix  their  names  to  the  instru 
ment.  Hamilton,  one  of  the  youngest,  acted  as 
scribe,  and  after  Washington  had  signed  first  as 
"  President  and  Deputy  from  Virginia,"  in 
scribed  on  the  great  sheet  of  parchment  the  name 
of  each  State,  as  the  delegates  came  forward  in 
geographical  order  to  add  their  names.  When 
all  had  signed,  Franklin,  the  oldest  and  most 
famous  of  them  all,  pointing  to  the  sun  embla 
zoned  behind  the  chair  in  which  Washington  had 
presided  through  the  whole  struggle,  said  to  those 
about  him :  "  In  the  vicissitudes  of  hope  and  fear, 
I  was  not  able  to  tell  whether  it  was  rising  or 
setting.  Now,  I  know  that  it  is  the  rising  sun." 
After  more  than  a  century's  trial  of  their  work, 
the  sun  which  Franklin  saw  is  not  yet  near  the 
zenith.  Much  has  been  done,  but  vastly  more 
remains  to  be  accomplished,  and  it  is  still  morn 
ing  with  our  young  Republic. 


195 


EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA 


EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA 

Inaugural  Address,  August  1st,  1903,  at  the  opening  of  the  summer 
meeting  at  Oxford. 

IN  responding  to  the  flattering  invitation  of  the 
Vice-Chancellor  to  open  this  Course  of  Sum 
mer  Lectures  by  an  Inaugural  Address,  it  was 
with  no  presumption  on  my  part  that  I  could  say 
anything  that  would  instruct  the  instructors,  or 
educate  the  educators.  He  would  be  a  vain  man 
indeed  who  would  dare  to  come  to  Oxford  with 
any  such  idea  as  that.  The  only  service  that  I 
can  render  is  to  open  the  way  for  those  public 
spirited  and  self-denying  teachers,  who  for  the 
coming  month  will  guide  your  studies  by  unfold 
ing  the  rich  stores  of  their  ample  learning. 

In  casting  about  for  a  subject  —  if  I  required  a 
subject  for  this  occasion  —  I  appealed  to  the  tried 
experience  of  the  Secretary,  who  kindly  suggested 
that  as  the  principal  course  of  the  season  was  to 
be  upon  the  Middle  Ages,  I  should  take  that  vast 
subject  for  my  theme.  But  America  has  no  place 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  I  see  by  the  programme  that 
the  year  1485  is  assigned  as  the  terminus  of  that 
period  of  modified  darkness,  but  surely  there  must 
be  a  mistake  of  seven  years,  for  Columbus  did  not 
discover  America  till  1492.  Then  it  was  that 
there  was  a  new  creation  —  a  new  adjustment  of 

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EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

the  little  world  which  we  inhabit.  Up  to  that  time 
one  half  of  the  earth  was  still  waste  and  void. 
It  had  been  lost  since  the  beginning  of  time.  It 
was  buried  in  that  darkness  which  was  upon  the 
face  of  the  deep;  but  the  spirit  of  God  moved 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  and  opened  the  new 
hemisphere  to  the  yearning  eyes  of  the  brave 
Genoese  —  and  again  He  said  Let  there  be  Light, 
and  there  was  Light. 

But  however  you  may  bound  the  Middle  Ages, 
America  contributes  nothing  to  the  studies  and 
discussions  which  await  you.  I  have  carefully 
examined  your  programme  and  find  not  the  re 
motest  allusion  to  the  Western  Hemisphere. 
From  ocean  to  ocean,  from  the  North  Pole  to  the 
South,  it  was  —  except  for  the  barbaric  civiliza 
tion  of  Mexico  and  Peru  —  a  trackless  wilderness, 
whose  wild  inhabitants  afforded  no  lessons  for 
modern  society,  unless  indeed  it  be  for  that  very 
minute  section  of  it,  on  either  side  of  the  water, 
the  mere  sportsmen  —  who  do  nothing  but 
sport  —  for  they  spent  their  whole  lives  through 
the  entire  Middle  Ages  in  hunting,  shooting,  fish 
ing  and  canoeing.  There  never  was  such  splendid 
sport,  although  nothing  ever  came  of  it  but  more 
sport.  They  were  indeed  our  leisure  class,  the 
only  leisure  class  America  ever  had  —  dating  back 
to  an  unknown  antiquity,  certainly  before  the 
Conquest,  perhaps  before  the  Flood.  Possibly 
our  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  Fathers  took  warning 
from  their  example  when  they  resolved  to  found 
a  new  civil  society  which  should  consist,  like 

200 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

More's  Utopia,  of  working  classes  only,  and  es 
tablished  the  Commonwealth  on  the  gospel  of 
hard  work,  as  it  continues  to  this  day.  And  so, 
perhaps,  after  all,  America  in  the  Middle  Ages 
has  contributed  something  to  the  sources  of  mod 
ern  history. 

I  will  therefore,  if  you  will  allow  me,  confine 
myself  to  the  very  modest  endeavor  to  give  you 
a  mere  glimpse  of  Education,  of  Universities,  and 
University  Extension  in  America,  which  may  sug 
gest  to  you  their  relation  to  the  same  great  things 
in  this  country,  without  exposing  me  to  the  peril 
of  commenting  at  all  upon  matters  purely  domes 
tic  here.  A  breeze  from  the  West  may  sometimes 
be  at  least  refreshing. 

For  130  years  from  the  great  Discovery,  while 
England  was  advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds, 
while  Erasmus  and  Colet  and  More  were  doing 
their  momentous  work  for  the  revival  of  learning 
in  England,  while  Elizabeth's  marvellous  reign 
was  perfecting  the  English  language  and  litera 
ture,  culminating  in  Shakespeare  and  Bacon  — 
the  whole  Western  Hemisphere  remained  undis 
turbed  and  undeveloped,  except  as  the  boundless 
enterprise  and  ambition  of  Spain  invaded  its  trop 
ical  regions,  and  the  energetic  rivalry  of  Jacques 
Cartier  and  his  successors  led  them  to  explore 
the  St.  Lawrence  as  the  Pioneers  of  New  France. 

The  first  great  act  of  the  English  Colonists 
after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  at  Plym 
outh  in  1620,  and  the  more  important  Puritan 
Emigration  under  Endicott  and  Winthrop  in 

201 


EDUCATION   IN   AMEEICA 

1628-9,  was  the  first  and  a  very  signal  example 
of  University  Extension  —  the  foundation  of 
Harvard  College  as  a  nursery  of  godly  ministers 
for  the  service  of  the  Colonies.  The  new  College 
was  the  direct  child  of  Cambridge:  the  leaders 
of  the  Colony  were  Cambridge  men,  with  a  very 
little  Oxford  leaven,  and  John  Harvard,  born  in 
Southwark,  and  baptized  in  St.  Saviour's  Church, 
who  gave  his  name,  his  library,  and  the  half  of 
his  fortune  to  the  new  foundation,  was  a  graduate 
of  Emmanuel,  the  distinctly  Puritan  College  at 
Cambridge.  Its  nurture  and  discipline  were  all 
drawn  from  Cambridge  sources,  and  for  the  first 
few  decades  it  was  a  small  counterpart,  but  in 
extreme  poverty  and  littleness,  of  one  of  the  Col 
leges  of  the  ancient  University  from  which  it 
sprang. 

While  the  Colonies  still  formed  an  integral  part 
of  the  British  Empire,  eight  more  Colleges  were 
founded  after  the  same  type,  of  which  Yale,  Penn 
sylvania,  Princeton,  and  Columbia,  still  maintain 
their  ascendancy.  As  their  limited  and  very 
scanty  endowments  would  permit,  these  all  fol 
lowed  the  English  types  exemplified  in  Oxford 
and  Cambridge.  They  rendered  great  service 
to  the  Colonies  and  the  Empire  by  training  men, 
according  to  the  approved  classical  and  scholastic 
model,  for  the  learned  professions  and  for  public 
life,  and  adequately  answered  the  very  moderate 
demands  of  the  community  for  higher  education. 

It  was  nearly  two  centuries  from  the  founda 
tion  of  Harvard  in  1636,  before  the  inadequacy 

202 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

of  the  Universities  to  supply  the  intellectual  needs 
of  the  world,  and  to  lead  its  advancing  movements, 
was  suspected,  and  another  generation  still  before 
it  was  fully  found  out  and  exposed.  So  long  as 
they  were  only  expected  to  furnish  for  the  service 
of  the  nation  the  necessary  supply  of  lawyers, 
doctors  and  ministers,  of  teachers,  scholars  and 
public  men,  and  to  lead  and  promote  the  growth 
of  its  literature,  the  old  routine,  the  old  curricu 
lum  of  the  Colleges  and  Universities  embracing 
Latin,  Greek  and  Mathematics,  with  a  little  philos 
ophy,  metaphysics  and  history,  were  supposed  to 
constitute  the  essential  elements  of  the  higher 
education  which  had  sufficed  for  many  genera 
tions. 

But  a  new  era  was  at  hand.  Probably  there 
never  has  been  such  a  revolution  in  social  and 
civil  life,  as  was  produced  by  the  application  of 
steam  and  electricity  to  the  practical  use  and  serv 
ice  of  man,  which  began  in  the  lifetime  of  men 
standing  here  to-night,  and  ushered  in  an  epoch 
of  material  development  and  progress  such  as  the 
world  never  witnessed  before,  and  which  has  by 
no  means  reached  its  culmination  yet.  The  growth 
of  the  population  of  the  United  States  from  ten 
millions  to  eighty  millions,  the  reduction  of  a 
virgin  Continent  to  their  use,  the  creation  of  a 
vast  system  of  transportation  by  railroads  that 
occupied  every  corner  and  reached  every  town  in 
the  country,  the  adaptation  of  all  the  applied  arts 
to  the  construction,  equipment  and  decoration  of 
public  and  private  buildings,  the  rapid  advance 

203 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

of  science,  the  multiplication  of  inventions,  the 
unparalleled  growth  of  manufactures,  and  the 
consequent  extension  of  commerce  and  trade, — 
all  combined  to  create  a  new  and  enlarged  civiliza 
tion,  which  had  outgrown  the  old  Colleges  and 
Universities,  and  threatened  to  leave  them  out, 
or  at  any  rate  far  behind.  This  rapid  and  un 
bounded  material  and  intellectual  progress  de 
manded  and  employed  an  amount  and  variety  of 
education  and  brain  power,  which  neither  their 
numbers,  their  resources,  or  their  system  of  train 
ing  enabled  the  old  Universities  to  furnish.  Prob 
ably  a  very  small  proportion  of  this  mighty  work, 
which  characterized  and  marked  the  19th  Century, 
had  been  done  or  devised  by  the  graduates  of 
our  old  institutions  of  learning.  While  they  had 
been  filling  the  professions,  the  halls  of  legisla 
tion,  the  great  public  offices,  the  chairs  of  the 
teachers  and  men  of  letters,  the  nation  had  looked 
for  and  found  a  great  army  of  men  of  brains  and 
men  of  action  to  attend  to  its  construction,  its 
transportation,  its  manufactures,  its  commerce, 
and  business  of  every  kind. 

It  was  found  then  that  our  higher  education 
must  be  adapted  to  this  startling  and  violent 
change  in  our  national  life,  and  that  if  our  Col 
leges  and  Universities  would  hold  their  own,  they 
must  greatly  increase  their  numbers,  change  their 
methods,  and  assume  new  and  closer  relations 
with  the  people  whom  they  still  aspired  to  instruct 
and  lead. 

In  the  first  place  their  numbers  were  multiplied. 
204 


EDUCATION   IN   AMEEICA 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  there  were  only 
twenty-six  Colleges  and  Universities  in  the  whole 
territory  of  the  United  States,  and  many  of  these 
were  in  an  infant  and  undeveloped  state.  They 
are  now  numbered  literally  by  hundreds,  bringing 
the  higher  education  home  to  the  people  every 
where,  many  of  them  richly  endowed,  most  of 
them  furnishing  to  the  youth  of  the  surrounding 
community  an  adequate  and  varied  training, 
adapted  to  qualify  them  for  business  and  for  any 
public  or  private  duty  to  which  they  may  be  called, 
although  it  may  be  far  below  the  standard 
now  set  by  Harvard  or  Columbia,  Yale  or  Prince 
ton. 

These  new  Colleges  were  not  all  on  the  same 
model,  but  afforded  a  wide  choice  of  courses  of 
study,  to  suit  the  varied  necessities  of  a  greatly 
diversified  community. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  of  the  older  States 
which  were  already  well  provided  with  them  by 
private  means,  each  State  in  the  Union  has,  by 
the  use  of  public  funds  and  lands,  created  a  State 
University ;  —  and  it  has  been  the  laudable  ambi 
tion  of  several  of  our  multi-millionaires  to  create 
Universities  by  the  generous  application  of  por 
tions  of  their  vast  fortunes.  It  has  been  interest 
ing  to  see  how  by  this  means  powerful  and  most 
useful  institutions  of  learning  could  be  created  all 
at  once  as  it  were.  I  mean  of  course  in  a  very 
few  years.  Of  these,  the  University  of  Chicago, 
founded  in  1892,  endowed  chiefly  by  the  generosity 
of  one  man,  now  numbering  over  3,000  students, 

205 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

and  with  an  equipment  approximating  to  that  of 
its  oldest  sisters,  is  the  leading  example  and  com 
pares  favorably  with  the  best. 

The  origin  and  foundation  of  the  Stanford  Uni 
versity,  which  owes  its  entire  endowment  to  the 
lavish  generosity  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stanford,  is 
full  of  pathetic  interest.  Travelling  in  Europe 
they  had  the  unspeakable  misfortune  to  lose  their 
only  child,  a  youth  of  great  promise,  Leland  Stan 
ford,  junior.  Returning  to  America  they  consid 
ered  how  they  might  best  perpetuate  his  beloved 
memory,  and  conceived  the  noble  idea  of  creating 
a  great  University  that  should  bear  his  name  to 
a  distant  posterity.  They  were  not  much  versed 
in  University  traditions,  and  had  no  special  knowl 
edge  as  to  how  to  create  an  institution  of  learning. 
But  they  cherished  and  fostered  the  happy  idea 
that  had  come  to  them.  They  consulted  the  best 
experts  that  could  be  found ;  —  they  visited  Har 
vard  and  Yale  and  studied  their  history  and  meth 
ods,  estimated  the  cost  and  value  of  their  entire 
plants,  and  concluded  that  by  an  original  invest 
ment  of  five  million  dollars,  and  a  further  five 
millions  for  equipment  and  maintenance,  they 
might  bring  into  existence  a  school  of  learning 
that  should  rank  with  the  best,  and  be  worthy  of 
their  highly  honorable  purpose. 

They  put  their  noble  design  into  immediate 
execution,  and  on  a  splendid  estate  in  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  regions  of  California,  erected 
buildings  that  would  be  quite  worthy  of  Oxford 
or  of  Cambridge,  and  in  a  very  few  years  the 

206 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

Stanford  University  took  its  place  among  the 
valuable  seats  of  learning  in  the  United  States, 
richly  endowed  and  equipped,  commanding  the 
services  of  distinguished  professors  and  instruc 
tors,  and  thronged  with  many  hundreds  of  stu 
dents.  Not  only  has  it  received  the  liberal 
amounts  originally  designed,  but  Mrs.  Stanford 
surviving  her  husband  has  actually  devoted  to  it 
the  whole  of  their  vast  fortune,  and  thus  they  have 
indeed  created  a  University  which  will  be  a  lasting 
monument  not  to  their  lost  son  only,  but  to  their 
own  unstinted  benevolence. 

The  Johns  Hopkins  University  in  Baltimore  is 
another  magnificent  instance  of  private  endow 
ment,  and  is  unique  in  its  character  among  Amer 
ican  Universities.  It  is  mainly  a  post-graduate 
institution  and  embraces  schools  of  Medicine, 
Science,  and  Physics,  and  is  a  nursery  of 
original  research,  publishing  from  time  to  time 
the  results  of  researches  of  professors  and  stu 
dents.  It  has  well  fulfilled  the  hopes  expressed 
for  it  by  Mr.  Huxley  in  his  splendid  address  at 
its  opening  in  1876. 

By  far  the  most  signal  advance  in  University 
Extension  yet  made  in  America  is  the  latest  in 
date  —  the  creation  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  of 
Research  at  Washington  —  with  an  endowment 
of  ten  million  dollars,  to  be  devoted  absolutely  to 
original  research.  Whoever  believes  that  there 
is  no  more  truth  to  be  found,  no  new  law  of  nature 
to  be  discovered,  may  as  well  join  the  ranks  of 
those  deluded  ones  who  believe  the  end  of  the 

207 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

world  is  at  hand.  So  long  as  ideas  rule  the  world, 
this  Institute  will  occupy  a  foremost  place  among 
institutions  of  learning,  and  bring  lasting  fame  to 
its  generous  founder. 

I  ought  not  to  pass  from  this  part  of  my  sub 
ject  without  a  reference  to  the  source  from  which 
some  of  our  oldest  and  most  prominent  Universi 
ties,  like  Harvard  and  Yale  and  Columbia  and 
Princeton,  derive  the  means  of  their  maintenance 
and  development,  to  enable  them  to  meet  their 
ever-increasing  needs,  and  the  enlarged  demands 
of  the  present  day.  They  receive  no  aid  from  the 
public  funds;  they  have  been  built  up  and  sus 
tained  by  private  contributions;  and  their  in 
creased  means  of  usefulness  are  chiefly  due  to 
the  loyalty  and  gratitude  and  generous  enthusi 
asm  of  their  own  graduates  and  their  friends  — 
which  are  found  to  be  an  unfailing  support.  It 
has  come  to  be  a  common  saying  that  no  rich  grad 
uate  can  live  or  die  without  giving  something  to 
his  University. 

It  goes  without  saying  also  that  technical,  pro 
fessional,  and  trade  schools  of  great  importance 
and  value,  and  in  considerable  numbers  hold  a 
high  place  among  our  modern  educational  estab 
lishments. 

The  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  whole  system  of  tech 
nical  education  in  the  United  States.  It  is  pri 
marily  a  school  of  industrial  science.  At  the  same 
time  it  finds  room  for  the  humaner  studies.  Mr. 
Mark,  whose  essay  on  "  Education  and  Industry 

208 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

in  the  United  States  "  has  been  published  by  the 
Board  of  Education,  says  of  it :  - 

"  Over  and  above  the  engineering  courses  of 
various  kinds,  there  are  courses  in  architecture, 
chemistry,  biology,  physics,  geology,  and  there 
is  a  general  course  for  those  students  who  wish 
to  secure  an  education  based  upon  scientific  study 
and  experiment,  but  including  a  larger  amount  of 
philosophical  study  in  history,  economics,  lan 
guage,  and  literature,  than  would  be  consistent 
with  the  technical  requirements  of  other  courses.'7 

Lord  Bacon  says  that  every  man  owes  a  debt 
to  his  profession,  and  many  of  these  technical, 
commercial  and  professional  schools  in  America 
owe  their  high  character,  their  great  success  and 
their  munificent  endowment  to  the  loyalty  and 
zeal  of  men  who,  without  such  advantages,  by 
sheer  force  of  brains  and  character,  have  suc 
ceeded  in  their  various  callings.  Every  man  is 
naturally  proud  of  the  profession,  business  or  art, 
in  which  he  has  himself  succeeded,  and  it  is  to  the 
eternal  honor  of  many  of  our  captains  of  industry 
that  they  manifest  their  gratitude  by  thus  smooth 
ing  the  footsteps  to  success  of  those  who  would 
follow  where  they  have  led. 

The  Drexel  Institute  in  Philadelphia,  the  Pratt 
Institute  in  Brooklyn,  the  Armour  Institute  in 
Chicago,  are  conspicuous  examples  of  the  gen 
erous  sympathy  of  successful  men  —  with  the 
struggles  and  necessities  of  those  who  come  after 
them. 

The  founders,  Mr.  Drexel,  Mr,  Pratt,  and  Mr. 
209 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

Armour  were  very  active  and  prominent  men  of 
business.  Magnificent  success  had  crowned  their 
own  efforts,  and  each  of  them  determined  to  leave 
a  memorial  that  should  bear  his  own  name,  and 
spread  through  a  wide  circle  the  benefits  of  his 
great  fortune.  Nothing  is  more  natural  than  that 
the  founders  of  such  institutions  should  desire  to 
attach  their  own  names  to  them,  and  so  enjoy  a 
certain  earthly  immortality  —  a  privilege  that 
cannot  fairly  be  denied  to  them.  They  cherished 
ideals  and  aspirations  far  nobler  than  the  mate 
rial  success  wh^ch  had  come  to  them.  One  couplet 
of  the  Psalm  o'f  Life  had  for  them  a  practical 
meaning. 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us, 
"We  may  make  our  lives  sublime, 

And  departing  leave  behind  us 
Footprints  on  the  Sands  of  Time. 

There  are  no  more  enduring  memorials  than 
these  "  footprints  on  the  sands  of  time."  It  was 
a  "  footprint  on  the  sand  "  that,  by  the  aid  of 
the  magic  touch  of  De  Foe's  genius,  has  immor 
talized  the  name  of  a  naked  savage  on  a  desert 
island;  and  geologists  tell  us  that  the  surface  of 
the  earth  is  marked  with  "  footprints  on  the 
sand  "  that  have  lasted  for  countless  ages,  and 
are  to-day  as  distinct  and  clear  as  when  they  were 
first  implanted.  What  better  footprints,  what  no 
bler  memorial  can  any  man  leave  behind  him  than 
to  give  his  name  to  one  of  these  new  creations, 
which  shall  carry  the  light  of  knowledge  to  the 
youth  of  distant  generations  ? 

210 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

You  will  perfectly  well  understand  that  our 
older  Universities  began  as  single  Colleges,  de 
voted  to  a  strictly  academic  course,  but  as  time 
went  on  there  grew  up  about  them  and  under 
their  government,  professional  schools,  each  with 
its  own  separate  and  special  faculty,  of  which  the 
President  of  the  University  was  the  head.  Taking 
Harvard  only  as  an  example,  it  has  its  Schools 
of  Divinity,  Medicine  and  Law,  each  distinct  from 
and  independent  of  the  old  academic  department, 
Harvard  College  proper.  For  admission  to  each 
of  them  something  equivalent  to  a  degree  of  Bach 
elor  of  Arts  already  obtained  is  in  general  re 
quired.  So  widespread  is  the  repute  of  these 
schools  that  students  resort  to  them  from  all  parts 
of  the  country,  bearing  the  Diplomas  of  the 
most  approved  Colleges  —  and  we  now  hear 
•  that  certain  eminent  English  Jurists  are 
advising  their  sons  to  go  over  to  the  Harvard 
Law  School,  as  the  best  foundation  for  legal 
studies. 

Harvard  also  maintains,  under  the  supervision 
of  its  Faculty  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  a  Scientific 
School  crowded  with  students  upon  whom  after 
a  full  course  of  study  it  confers  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Science.  It  also  maintains,  under  the 
same  supervision,  a  Graduate  School,  which  is 
yearly  growing  in  strength  and  importance,  and 
is  already  one  of  the  most  interesting  departments 
of  the  University.  It  provides  advanced  courses 
of  study  for  the  Graduates  of  Harvard  and  other 
approved  colleges,  and  enables  them  to  qualify 

211 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

for  the  higher  degrees  in  Arts,  Science  and  Phil 
osophy. 

Thus  have  we  endeavored  to  accomplish  the 
first  and  not  the  least  important  part  of  our  Uni 
versity  Extension,  by  increasing  the  number  of 
our  schools  of  learning,  and  enlarging  and  vary 
ing  the  branches  of  knowledge  and  instruction  to 
which  they  are  generally  or  specially  devoted. 

No  adequate  idea  can  be  formed  of  the  impor 
tance  and  utility  of  this  enlarged  system  of  Uni 
versities,  Colleges,  and  Professional  and  Tech 
nical  Schools,  without  a  knowledge  of  the  broad 
and  firm  foundation  on  which  they  rest  —  the 
common  schools  of  the  United  States,  which  from 
the  beginning  have  been  the  peculiar  care  of  the 
people.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  in  this  regard 
that  Education  has  been  the  chief  industry  of  the 
nation.  The  Constitution  of  the  State  of  New 
York  declares  that  the  Legislature  must  provide 
for  the  maintenance  and  support  of  a  system  of 
free  Common  Schools,  wherein  all  the  children 
of  the  State  may  be  educated.  And  this  is  but  a 
single  application  of  the  general  policy,  that  each 
State  owes  to  all  of  its  children  of  both  sexes, 
an  education  at  the  public  expense,  up  to  the  point 
at  which  they  may  be  able  to  sustain  themselves 
in  the  struggle  of  life.  Without  this  it  was  deemed 
that  our  Institutions,  resting  as  they  do  upon  uni 
versal  suffrage,  could  not  be  safe  or  enduring. 
According  as  the  condition  in  life  of  its  parents 
permits,  every  child  may,  without  expense  to  them, 
pass  through  the  successive  grades  of  primary, 

212 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

grammar,  and  high  schools,  and  be  prepared  not 
merely  for  its  narrow  vocation  in  life,  but  also  for 
the  discharge  of  that  public  duty  which  the  pos 
session  of  the  suffrage  involves. 

Of  course  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  chil 
dren  of  the  State  can  avail  themselves  of  the  full 
benefit  of  secondary  education  provided,  and  a 
much  smaller  percentage  can  advance  to  a  Univer 
sity  training,  but  in  the  aggregate  education  is  so 
generally  diffused  among  the  people,  that  the 
average  laborer,  mechanic,  farmer  or  clerk, 
knows  much  more  than  enough  to  qualify  him  for 
his  narrow  and  peculiar  occupation,  and  can  un 
derstand,  and  act,  with  some  intelligence  upon  the 
public  questions  on  which  he  is  called  upon  to 
vote.  Upon  this  broad  and  deep  foundation  our 
Universities  rest,  out  of  it  they  have  grown,  and 
with  it  they  form  one  entire  and  co-ordinated 
system,  upon  which  a  Government  depending 
wholly  upon  the  sum  of  public  opinion  of  all  its 
citizens  may  safely  abide. 

It  is  difficult  to  present  the  simplest  statement 
of  the  magnitude  of  our  common  school  system, 
without  seeming  to  be  guilty  of  gross  exaggera 
tion.  According  to  the  latest  available  statistics, 
the  whole  number  of  pupils  enrolled  exceeds 
16,000,000,  of  whom  fifteen  and  a  half  millions  are 
in  the  primary  and  grammar  schools,  and  600,000 
in  the  high  schools  and  academies.  It  was  to 
these  common  schools  that  the  nation  looked, 
when  the  Universities  failed,  for  the  supply  of 
that  brain  power,  energy  and  enterprise,  which 

213 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

the  making  of  the  nation  demanded.  From  this 
great  mass  the  accidents  of  birth,  fortune  and 
circumstance  select  the  few,  about  120,000  in  all, 
who  can  avail  themselves  of  the  College  and  Uni 
versity  training.  But  the  combined  intellectual 
force  of  the  country  is  in  the  Common  Schools, 
and  out  of  it  by  a  process  of  natural  selection 
have  been  eliminated  the  effective  genius,  talent, 
and  faculty  which  the  exigencies  of  the  age  re 
quired  for  the  expansion  of  modern  life.  To  these 
in  chief  measure  we  owe  the  engineers,  the  in 
ventors,  the  mechanicians,  the  practical  scientists, 
who  have  directed  our  material  development. 

In  the  same  way  those  who  have  read  that 
fascinating  book,  Smiles 's  "  Lives  of  British 
Engineers  "  must  have  been  struck  with  the  fact 
that  men  who  did  so  much  for  the  making  of  Eng 
land,  for  the  most  part  enjoyed  but  little  of  the 
advantages  of  the  higher  education,  but  sprang 
from  the  people,  and  seemed  by  the  mere  force 
of  natural  faculty .  to  educate  themselves  for  their 
great  and  responsible  work.  But,  school  or  no 
school,  college  or  no  college,  Genius  will  work  its 
way  to  the  front. 

A  single  word  more  about  our  common  schools, 
to  me  always  a  fascinating  subject.  Of  the  teach 
ers  whose  numbers  amount  to  about  half  a  million, 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  much  more  than  two-thirds 
are  women  —  who  here  find  a  field  of  usefulness 
and  honor,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  our 
national  prosperity  and  distinction.  By  general 
consent,  the  conscience,  the  sympathy  and  the 

214 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

superior  patience  of  women  are  deemed  to  qual 
ify  them  in  the  highest  degree  for  the  wise  and 
tactful  instruction  of  the  youth  of  both  sexes. 
At  any  rate"  with  us  their  general  employment  as 
teachers  has  proved  a  complete  success. 

I  freely  acknowledge  my  great  obligations  to 
the  accomplished  and  faithful  women  who  taught 
in  the  common  schools  of  Massachusetts  which  it 
was  my  good  fortune  to  attend.  But  since  that 
remote  day  the  scientific  training  of  women  in 
the  fine  art  of  teaching  has  advanced  in  a  sort  of 
arithmetical  progression  in  normal  schools,  in 
.colleges  for  women  which  fairly  rival  in  dignity 
and  equipment  the  best  colleges  for  men,  and  in 
such  institutions  as  the  Normal  College  for 
Women  in  the  City  of  New  York.  So  that 
to-day  great  numbers  of  women,  thoroughly  qual 
ified  for  the  service  of  the  State  in  the  common 
schools  and  even  in  higher  education,  are  to  be 
found  in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  and  they  exercise 
a  wide-spread  and  powerful  influence  in  elevating, 
refining  and  humanizing  the  youth  of  the  Nation. 

But  however  much  we  may  multiply  the  number 
of  our  seats  of  learning,  we  cannot  adapt  them 
to  the  demands  and  exigencies  of  modern  life, 
without  a  wide  and  radical  departure  from  the 
ancient  curriculum,  which  aimed  only  at  qualify 
ing  youth  to  prepare  for  certain  limited  profes 
sions,  or  to  take  part  in  the  administration  of 
public  affairs.  Whatever  special  calling  a  man  is 
to  follow  after  leaving  the  University,  he  ought 
to  start  with  a  generous  and  liberal  education 

215 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

such  as  every  gentleman  should  have.  But  if  we 
want  our  Universities  to  fill  the  full  measure  of 
their  usefulness  in  the  grand  action  of  the  world 
of  to-day,  and  to  be  responsible  for  the  leaders 
in  such  great  occupations  as  those  of  the  Engi 
neer,  the  Architect,  the  Manufacturer,  the  Mer 
chant,  the  Banker,  the  Eailroad  President,  the 
Journalist,  the  man  of  Science,  and  those  who 
apply  science  to  the  useful  arts  on  the  grand  scale 
upon  which  those  callings  are  now  pursued,  can 
not  some  system  be  evolved  on  a  broader  scale 
than  that  which  prevailed  in  all  the  Universities 
before  this  tremendous  expansion  of  modern  life 
began?  Can  we  not  attain  the  desired  object  of 
a  liberal  education  upon  which  we  insist  for  them 
all,  without  binding  them  all  down  to  that  system 
of  training  which  once  sufficed  for  candidates  for 
the  older  professions,  for  public  service  and  for 
the  cultivated  life  of  the  leisure  class?  Cannot 
a  scheme  be  devised  which  will  enable  every  man 
who  enters  the  University,  to  get  the  most  out 
of  himself,  to  begin  to  prepare  for  the  life  occu 
pation  for  which  he  is  best  fitted,  and  to  serve  the 
community  by  the  best  exercise  of  the  faculties 
with  which  he  is  by  nature  endowed? 

These  questions  have  been  answered  in  the 
United  States  by  the  adoption  of  the  second  form 
of  University  Extension  to  which  I  have  referred, 
the  broadening  and  expansion  of  the  courses  of 
instruction,  and  by  the  introduction  of  the  open 
door  for  the  human  mind  into  the  University 
curriculum.  What  is  known  as  the  elective  sys- 

216 


EDUCATION   IN   AMEEICA 

tern,  which  was  practically  unknown  fifty  years 
ago,  has  now,  against  great  opposition,  and  in 
the  face  of  inveterate  prejudice,  been  steadily 
gaining  ground,  and  promises  to  prevail  in  our 
principal  seats  of  learning.  President  Eliot,  who 
is  well  entitled  to  be  called  the  author  of  this 
system  in  the  United  States,  explains  it  thus :  - 

"  The  state  of  society  at  large  under  freedom 
is  perfectly  illustrated  by  the  condition  of  things 
in  a  University,  where  the  choice  of  studies  is 
free  and  every  student  is  protected  and  encour 
aged  in  developing  to  the  utmost  his  own  gifts 
and  powers.  In  Harvard  University  for  example, 
thousands  of  students  enjoy  an  almost  complete 
liberty  in  the  selection  of  their  studies,  each  man 
being  encouraged  to  select  those  subjects  in  which 
he  most  easily  excels  and  consequently  finds  most 
enjoyment  and  most  profit. " 

It  is  not,  however,  to  be  supposed  that  because 
this  wide  liberty  of  choice  is  allowed  to  the  indi 
vidual  student  a  less  amount  of  work  is  required 
of  him;  on  the  contrary,  a  full  and  equivalent 
measure  of  study  is  prescribed  and  exacted  as 
under  the  old  system,  and  the  same  degree  is 
given  for  both. 

I  would  not  undertake  to  judge  how  far  such 
a  system  could  be  adopted  with  wisdom  or  suc 
cess,  under  the  totally  different  social  conditions 
which  prevail  here,  but  a  glance  at  the  programme 
of  this  Eleventh  Summer  Meeting  prepared  by 
the  Delegacy  for  the  extension  of  teaching  would 
seem  to  show  that  it  has  already  made  consider- 

217 


EDUCATION   IN   AMEEICA 

able  progress,  and  I  believe  that  at  Oxford  there 
is  practical  freedom  of  choice  for  each  student, 
without  regard,  of  course,  to  degrees  or  honors. 

You  must  not  suspect  for  one  moment  that 
Harvard,  or  any  of  the  other  American  Univer 
sities  which  have  adopted  the  elective  system,  are 
being  converted  into  Technical  Schools  or  Com 
mercial  Colleges.  Far  distant  be  the  day  when 
the  first  step  in  that  direction  shall  be  taken.  On 
the  contrary,  they  adhere  rigidly  in  their  academ 
ical  course,  to  the  orthodox  theory,  that  special 
study  for  professional  or  business  life  should  be 
postponed,  till  a  broad  and  general  education  has 
developed  the  faculties  and  character,  and  that 
only  upon  such  a  foundation  can  education  in 
specialties  safely  rest.  But  many  men  have  many 
gifts  and  different  faculties.  They  are  not  all  run 
in  one  mould,  or  all  capable  of  making  the  most 
of  themselves  by  studying  the  same  things.  The 
old  classical  course  is  still  always  open  to  all  who 
desire  to  follow  it,  and  is  maintained  in  a  high 
degree  of  excellence.  No  preferential  tariff  is 
imposed  on  the  humaner  courses,  an  equal  amount 
of  duty  and  performance  is  exacted  from  the 
others ;  —  and  the  modern  languages,  natural  his 
tory,  science  and  the  many  other  studies  that  have 
been  added  to  the  curriculum,  are  accepted  only 
as  equivalents  and  substitutes  for  the  more  an 
cient  requirements. 

You  are  too  familiar  with  the  other  forms  of 
University  Extension  in  which  the  United  States 
have  faithfully  followed  the  lead  of  Oxford 

218 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

and  Cambridge,  to  require  me  to  enlarge  upon 
them. 

Chautauqua,  with  its  10,000  students ;  —  the 
fourth  quarter  or  the  summer  term  at  the  Uni 
versity  of  Chicago,  where  academic  work  goes 
right  on  throughout  the  year  (48  weeks),  like  any 
other  business,  drawing  students  and  professors 
from  nearly  all  the  other  American  Universities ; 
the  Harvard  and  Columbia  Summer  Schools,  each 
gathering  hundreds  of  students  from  all  parts  of 
the  United  States  and  from  foreign  lands;  the 
splendid  and  effective  work  done  by  the  Exten 
sion  Society  of  Philadelphia ;  —  are  but  examples 
and  illustrations  of  what  is  going  on  for  the  pro 
motion  of  higher  education  in  many  parts  of  the 
country. 

Among  them  all  the  Chautauqua  summer  as 
semblage  has  done  more  than  any  other  to  stimu 
late  and  satisfy  the  desire  for  knowledge,  and  an 
earnest  purpose  to  acquire  something  like  a  Uni 
versity  education,  among  those  to  whom  fortune 
denied  a  regular  college  training.  You  should 
read  Mr.  Herbert  B.  Adams's  account,  of  which 
I  can  only  give  you  an  abstract.  It  is  really  a 
University  itself  in  session  for  the  summer 
months,  with  schools  of  English  language  and 
literature,  of  modern  languages,  of  classical  lan 
guages,  of  mathematics  and  science,  of  pedagogy, 
of  religious  teaching,  of  music  and  the  fine  arts, 
of  expression,  of  physical  education,  of  domestic 
science,  and  of  practical  arts,  instructed  by 
learned  professors,  and  by  volunteers  from  the 

219 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

educated  men  and  women  of  the  land,  and  at 
tended  by  thousands  from  every  State  and  from 
foreign  parts.  It  is  really  the  pioneer  of  summer 
schools,  having  held  its  regular  sessions  for 
nearly  thirty  years,  and  has  constantly  increased 
in  the  extent  and  power  of  its  influence.  It  lays 
out  courses  of  home  study  and  reading  for  four 
years.  "  Work  begun  under  competent  direction 
at  Chautauqua,  may  be  continued,  at  home,  by 
correspondence  with  the  head  of  the  '  school  ' 
throughout  the  year."  In  very  rare  cases,  after 
very  searching  tests  and  examinations,  such  work 
may  be  rewarded  by  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Arts  or  Bachelor  of  Science,  which  the  Regents 
of  the  University,  the  highest  educational  author 
ity  of  the  State  of  New  York,  are  empowered  to 
confer.  The  number  of  local  reading  circles  in 
all  parts  of  the  country,  inspired  and  guided 
from  Chautauqua  in  the  last  twenty  years,  has 
been  about  10,000,  and  its  total  enrolment  of 
readers  in  that  time  has  been  about  a  quarter  of 
a  million.  This  is  really  bringing  higher  educa 
tion  home  to  the  people  in  earnest.  Chautauqua 
stands  for  hard  study  and  high  thinking,  and  its 
votaries  are  almost  entirely  the  people  of  plain 
living.  It  is  hard  to  measure  its  influence  and 
power  for  good.  President  Roosevelt,  who  has 
long  been  known  as  a  historical  lecturer  and 
writer,  visited  the  assemblage  in  1899,  when  he 
was  Governor  of  New  York.  Welcomed  by  10,000 
people  in  the  great  amphitheatre,  he  said  that  he 
came  to  preach  the  gospel  of  intelligent  work,  that 

220 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

this  Chautauqua  did  not  come  by  chance,  that  it 
was  the  result  of  years  of  hard  work,  and  that 
now  there  is  no  institution  more  fraught  with 
good  to  the  nation  than  this. 

The  Regents  of  the  University  of  the  State  of 
New  York  have  had  great  success  in  promoting 
Extension  Lectures  in  connection  with  the  State 
Library  at  Albany,  with  the  combined  aid  of 
travelling  libraries,  travelling  pictures,  extension 
lectures,  and  State  examiners,  all  working  har 
moniously  and  efficiently  together  under  one  cen 
tral  guidance  at  Albany.  The  Library  is  the  great 
foundation  of  extension  work  in  New  York.  To 
bring  books  to  the  people,  to  teach  them  what 
books  to  read  and  how  to  read  them,  and  to  bring 
the  best  books  within  their  reach  in  connection 
with  the  living  voice  of  the  lecturer,  is  the  cardinal 
object  and  means  of  stimulating  the  love  of  study, 
and  the  thirst  for  knowledge. 

In  some  of  the  States,  notably  in  Massachusetts, 
travelling  libraries  are  hardly  needed,  and  but 
few  Carnegie  Libraries  are  to  be  found.  In  that 
State,  which  consists  of  350  townships,  all  but 
five  had,  at  last  accounts,  established  each  for 
itself  a  free  public  library  open  to  the  use  of  all 
citizens,  and  maintained  at  the  public  expense; 
but  even  in  such  States,  what  to  read  and  how 
to  read  it  are  still  very  serious  questions,  upon 
which  great  light  ought  to  be  shed  by  the  Summer 
Lectures. 

Emerson,  whose  name  has  been  on  all  tongues   y 
lately  in  connection  with  the  centennial  of  his 

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EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

birth,  and  who  was  one  of  the  greatest  readers  of 
his  time,  and  got  more  out  of  his  reading  than 
almost  any  other  man,  laid  down  some  cardinal 
rules  for  his  own  selection  of  books. 

"  Be  sure,"  he  says,  "  to  read  no  mean  books. 
Shun  the  spawn  of  the  press  on  the  gossip  of  the 
hour.  Do  not  read  what  you  shall  learn  without 
asking,  in  the  street  and  the  train.  The  scholar 
knows  that  the  famed  books  contain  first  and  last 
the  best  thoughts  and  facts.  In  the  best  circles 
is  the  best  information." 

"  The  three  practical  rules,"  he  says,  "  which 
I  have  to  offer  are :  1.  Never  read  any  book  which 
is  not  a  year  old;  2.  Never  read  any  but  famed 
books;  3.  Never  read  any  but  what  you  like." 
Thus  out  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  books  that 
issue  from  the  press  every  year,  he  would  let  the 
world  first  winnow  for  him  the  chaff  from  the 
wheat,  and  from  the  hundreds  of  good  books  that 
were  so  eliminated  he  would  have  each  student 
select  for  himself  what  his  own  necessities  and 
his  own  taste  required.  At  all  events,  one  of  the 
greatest  services  which  your  lecturers  can  render, 
is  to  guide  you  in  the  choice  of  the  books  in  your 
selected  course. 

But  enough  of  our  American  methods.  By  sub 
stantially  the  same  means  the  two  countries  are 
pursuing  the  same  end  of  popularizing  the  higher 
education  —  of  bringing  it  home  to  the  people  - 
and  securing  its  benefits  not  only  to  fhose  whom 
fortune  or  circumstance  enables  to  spend  four 
years  at  the  University  —  but  to  that  vastly 

222 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

greater  number,  whose  thirst  for  knowledge  and 
desire  to  make  their  working  lives  more  useful 
and  more  happy,  lead  them  to  seek  and  avail 
themselves  of  the  great  privileges  which  the  vari 
ous  methods  of  University  Extension  supply.  To 
continue  in  after  life  the  delights  and  profit  of 
those  studies,  which  the  great  majority  of  Uni 
versity  men  leave  behind  them  when  they  take 
their  degrees  —  to  extend  them  in  generous  meas 
ure  to  the  less  fortunate,  who  have  had  to  enter 
upon  the  struggle  of  life  without  them  —  and  to 
apply  the  systematic  methods  of  College  training 
to  many  general  and  popular  subjects,  for  which 
no  place  is  found  in  the  established  curriculum, 
are  the  three  great  objects  which  these  and  other 
summer  courses  of  lectures  and  reading  have 
successfully  attained. 

To  come  for  these  high  purposes  to  Oxford  — 
this  most  ancient  seat  of  education  known  to  the 
English  race  —  about  whose  venerable  Halls  and 
Libraries,  quadrangles  and  walks,  cluster  all  the 
history,  traditions  and  memories  of  many  cen 
turies  of  learning  and  study,  whose  very  air  is 
redolent  of  knowledge  and  wisdom,  seems  to  me 
to  be  the  highest  reward  and  privilege  of  the 
earnest  seeker  after  truth. 

One  supreme  advantage  you  enjoy,  which  will 
make  the  month  you  spend  here  more  rich  and 
profitable  than  a  whole  year  to  the  ordinary 
University  student.  He  who  comes  here  because 
he  is  sent,  because  it  is  the  fashion  to  come,  be 
cause  his  parents  know  not  what  else  to  do  with 

223 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

him  in  the  four  years  which  separate  youth  and 
manhood,  often  carries  away,  I  fear,  very  little  to 
show  for  his  time.  But  you  who  are  in  dead  ear 
nest,  who  come  because  you  cannot  stay  away,  and 
with  the  firm  resolve  to  make  the  most  of  the 
opportunity,  will  go  home  bearing  your  sheaves 
with  you,  and  fruits  of  study  which  will  enrich 
and  gladden  all  your  days. 

Upon  one  thing  I  must  especially  congratulate 
you  —  the  presence  of  women  on  an  absolutely 
equal  footing  in  attendance  upon  all  the  courses 
that  are  offered  here.  Here  in  conservative  Ox 
ford,  and  in  the  Summer  School  of  Harvard  which 
on  other  occasions  equally  ignores  the  idea  of 
co-education,  these  men  and  women,  earnest  and 
ardent  seekers  after  truth,  sit  on  the  same 
benches,  hear  the  same  lectures,  pursue  the  same 
studies,  and  live  the  same  lives,  while  this  ideal 
month  lasts.  The  young  daughter  of  Somerville 
or  Girton,  of  Radcliffe  or  Barnard,  who  is  in 
search  of  more  light  and  the  higher  life,  finds  here 
her  full  and  equal  opportunity. 

And  this  brings  me  to  the  last  point  I  wish  to 
make,  that  these  Summer  Meetings  are  not  only 
an  opening  of  the  doors  of  the  University  to  those 
who  have  been  shut  out  —  not  merely  an  exchange 
of  learning  between  different  Universities  and 
Colleges  and  Schools,  but  they  constitute  a  real 
international  exchange  of  knowledge  and  oppor 
tunity.  I  see  in  this  audience  visitors  from  all 
the  Continental  nations,  all  bound  on  the  same 
glorious  errand,  and  what  I  rejoice  in  still  more, 

224 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

men  and  women  from  my  own  country,  who  having 
acquired  what  our  own  Universities  had  to  give, 
have  crossed  the  seas  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
spending  a  month  in  this  congenial  company,  in 
these  sympathetic  and  inspiring  surroundings,  in 
this  Oxford,  the  historic  and  perpetual  home  of 
the  scholar. 

It  is  such  intercourse  as  this  —  the  exchange  of 
ideas,  of  sentiments,  of  hopes  and  aspirations, 
that  will  be  of  priceless  benefit  to  both  countries. 
Cecil  Rhodes,  that  great  Englishman,  —  "great 
empire  builder,"  as  the  Times  calls  him  —  great 
citizen  of  the  World  as  I  prefer  to  call  him,  for 
so  his  will  attests  him,  —  with  the  most  compre 
hensive  and  exalted  view  of  the  unity  of  the  race 
to  which  he  belonged,  —  has  provided  that  hence 
forth  forever,  there  shall  at  all  times  be  at  Oxford 
100  American  youth  selected  from  all  the  States, 
here  to  receive  and  enjoy,  and  to  carry  home,  the 
best  fruits  of  her  nurture  and  instruction,  which 
this  ancient  nursery  of  scholars  and  wise  men  has 
to  bestow.  We  shall  try  to  give  you  our  very 
best  —  picked  men  on  whom  no  opportunity  will 
be  wasted  —  men  who  will  be  ambitious  to  win 
your  highest  honors  and  rewards  —  and  I  am 
sure  they  will  carry  home  with  them  what  is  of 
more  value  than  all  that,  a  better  knowledge  of 
our  own  country  and  of  yours  —  a  better  under 
standing  of  the  relations  which  should  exist  be 
tween  them,  a  more  generous  sympathy  of  race 
with  all  who  speak  the  English  tongue. 

And  now  will  not  some  rich  American  —  there 
225 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

are  plenty  of  them  who  could  do  it  without  feel 
ing  it  —  I  could  name  scores  of  them  —  will  not 
some  broad-minded  and  patriotic  American  re 
spond  to  Mr.  Ehodes's  challenge,  and  in  his  life 
time  —  now  —  straightway  —  make  a  similar  and 
equal  provision  for  one  hundred  young  Britons  - 
English,  Scotch  and  Irish  —  to  he  maintained  at 
all  times  at  such  Universities  in  the  United  States 
as  they  may  select  —  the  best  men  you  can  give 
us  —  who  would  study  England  from  the  Amer 
ican  point  of  view,  while  they  are  studying  Amer 
ica  from  the  English  point  of  view  —  and  learn 
that  the  two  peoples,  in  spite  of  their  different 
methods  and  usages  are  very  much  alike,  and  in 
pursuit  of  the  same  ends  and  objects. 

I  know  both  peoples  pretty  well  now,  but  I  do 
not  know  which  Country,  or  which  set  of  young 
men,  would  be  the  greater  gainer  by  the  exchange. 
I  am  sure  that  it  would  put  an  end  for  ever  to 
that  provincial  spirit  which  still  lingers  on  both 
sides,  and  especially  among  the  young  men  of 
both  sides,  and  would  establish  an  endless  chain 
of  intercourse  and  sympathy,  which  it  would  be 
to  the  perpetual  interest  of  both  countries  to 
preserve. 

What  I  mean  by  the  provincial  spirit  which  still 
exists  among  the  young  men  of  both  countries,  is 
that  national  prejudice  born  of  intense  love  of 
country,  which  refuses  to  see  or  believe  that  any 
thing  can  be  done  quite  as  well  abroad  as  it  is  at 
home,  and  which  looks  with  condescension  and 
patronage  upon  the  best  efforts  and  achievements 

226 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

of  other  nations.  This  prejudice,  though  trace 
able  to  a  very  noble  motive,  does  certainly  stand 
in  the  way  of  the  highest  national  development, 
and  I  know  of  no  cure  for  it  so  effectual  as  would 
be  the  constant  interchange  of  students  in  large 
numbers,  between  the  great  Universities  of  the 
two  nations.  And  if  the  movement  lately  inaugu 
rated,  for  a  more  intimate  relation  and  inter 
change  of  ideas  and  students  between  the  Univer 
sities  of  English-speaking  countries  is  to  proceed 
in  earnest,  the  Universities  of  the  United  States 
must  not  be  left  out. 

In  a  matter  so  vital  and  far-reaching  as  Edu 
cation,  on  which  the  supreme  interests  of  both 
nations  so  absolutely  depend,  England  and  the 
United  States  cannot  stand  apart.  They  must 
each  study  the  methods,  motives,  and  results  of 
the  systems  pursued  by  the  other,  and  in  a  spirit 
of  generous  rivalry  strive  each  to  promote  the 
moral,  intellectual  and  spiritual  welfare  of  its 
own  people  —  being  sure  that  in  so  doing  they 
will  best  advance  the  cause  of  civilization,  and 
co-operate  for  the  general  welfare  of  mankind. 
I  know  of  no  more  notable  compliment  ever  paid 
by  one  to  the  other,  than  when  your  Board  of 
Education  published  last  year,  for  the  informa 
tion  of  the  British  public,  in  its  Special  Eeports 
on  Educational  subjects,  those  two  great  volumes 
upon  Education  in  the  United  States  —  so  ex 
pressive  of  the  sympathy  and  interest  of  this 
kindred  people  in  all  our  experiments,  mistakes 
and  successes  —  and  you  may  be  sure  that  all  the 

227 


EDUCATION   IN   AMERICA 

friends  of  Education  in  America,  including  every 
intelligent  and  public  spirited  citizen,  are  watch 
ing  with  equal  sympathy  and  attention  the  great 
work  which  is  being  done  here  in  the  same  direc 
tion. 

If  the  moral  courage  and  intellectual  achieve 
ments  of  the  English  race  the  world  over  are  to 
keep  in  advance,  or  even  to  keep  pace  with  its 
material  and  industrial  progress,  it  can  only  be 
done  by  maintaining  at  its  highest  level  the  stand 
ard  of  Education  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  and 
especially  by  extending  the  higher  education  as 
broadly  as  possible  among  the  men  and  women  of 
both  countries.  And  so  I  say  let  us  stand  to 
gether,  and  learn  from  each  other  and  help  each 
other  all  that  we  can. 

As  Mr.  Lowell  well  said:  "  The  measure  of  a 
nation's  true  success  is  the  amount  it  has  contrib 
uted  to  the  thought,  the  moral  energy,  the  intel 
lectual  happiness,  the  spiritual  hope  and  consola 
tion  of  mankind." 

The  more  strenuously  we  contend  for  that  suc 
cess,  the  stronger  and  warmer  will  be  our  friend 
ship,  our  sympathy,  and  our  mutual  confidence 
and  respect. 


228 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 


SIR  WALTER    SCOTT 

Address  before  the  Edinburgh  Sir  Walter  Scott  Club, 
November  11,  1899. 

ME.  PBESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN :  — I 
thank  you  most  warmly  for  this  cordial 
greeting,  but  I  take  all  the  credit  of  it  for  my 
country  and  not  for  myself.  Truly  your  country 
and  mine  are  connected  by  bonds  of  sympathy 
which  were  never  stronger  and  closer  than  at  this 
very  hour.  When  Dandie  Dinmont  had  listened 
to  the  reading  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Bertram's  will, 
he  threw  himself  back  and  gave  utterance  to  that 
great  saying:  "  Blood  is  thicker  than  water. " 
Little  did  he  dream  that  he  was  giving  to  two 
great  nations  a  watchword  for  the  exchange  of 
love  and  greetings  eighty  years  afterwards. 

I  can  assure  you  that  Lord  Salisbury,  in  his 
generous  and  cordial  words  last  night  at  the  Lord 
Mayor's  banquet,  will  meet  with  a  quick  and 
hearty  response  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
Our  great  poet  has  said  that l '  peace  hath  her  vic 
tories  not  less  renowned  than  war,"  and  this  iron 
clad  friendship  that  now  prevails  between  these 
two  kindred  nations  is  her  last  and  greatest  vic 
tory.  It  means  peace  not  merely  between  your 
country  and  mine,  but  among  all  the  great  nations 
of  the  earth,  and  it  tends,  by  advancing  civiliza- 

231 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

tion,  to  promote  the  prosperity  and  welfare  not  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  alone,  but  of  the  whole 
human  race. 

Now,  it  must  be  said  that  Americans  and  Scotch 
men  in  particular  have  a  great  deal  in  common. 
Even  in  those  lighter  personal  characteristics 
which  sometimes  amuse  our  common  critics,  they 
are  very  much  alike.  Our  national  habit,  for  I 
confess  it  is  a  fixed  habit,  of  making  ourselves  at 
home  wherever  we  go,  must  have  been  inherited 
from  some  remote  Scottish  progenitor,  for  I  as 
sure  you  that  your  people  come  over  and  settle 
down  upon  us  and  make  the  very  fat  of  our  land 
their  own.  They  celebrate  the  birthday  of  your 
patron  saint  in  America  with  far  more  gusto  than 
you  have  ever  done  at  home.  No  doubt  about  that. 
And  on  the  thirtieth  of  November,  they  convert 
our  great  land,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
into  another  land  of  cakes. 

I  have  known  more  than  one  of  these  invaders 
who,  landing  on  our  shores  in  youth  with  nothing 
but  sound  minds  and  brave  hearts  in  stalwart 
bodies,  have  returned  in  mature  age  to  become 
the  owners  of  lordly  castles  and  broad  domains 
of  which  princes  and  dukes  might  well  be  proud. 

There  is  another  habit  of  ours  which  I  do  not 
admit,  but  which  malicious  critics  ascribe  to  us,  — 
of  being  very  eager  in  the  pursuit  of  the  almighty 
dollar.  Well,  I  have  been  studying  the  Scottish 
character  somewhat  since  my  arrival,  and  I  am 
bold  enough  to  ask  the  question  whether  that  is 
not,  after  all,  a  feeble  and  respectful  imitation  of 

232 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

your  keen  and  constant  pursuit  of  the  five  times 
more  almighty  pound. 

Although  those  are  circumstances  in  which  we 
are  alike,  there  is  one  ruling  trait  more  striking 
than  either  of  these,  and  that  is  that  innate  mod 
esty —  that  overwhelming  modesty  and  distrust 
of  ourselves,  which  is  truly  the  common  character 
istic  of  both  peoples,  and  which  always  puts  us  in 
a  pious  frame  of  mind  and  leads  us  to  unite  in 
uttering  that  well  worn  prayer:  "  Lord,  help  us 
to  have  a  good  conceit  of  ourselves." 

But,  seriously,  in  those  essential  and  vital 
qualities  that  go  to  make  up  the  national  char 
acter,  we  are  also  alike ;  and  we  may  boast  and  be 
proud  of  our  mutual  resemblance.  I  mean  in  that 
inborn  love  of  independence;  that  claim  for  the 
individual  to  all  the  liberty  and  all  the  scope  which 
is  consistent  with  the  general  welfare ;  in  the  pure 
spirit  of  the  highest  and  noblest  democracy  at 
home  in  these  islands  as  well  as  in  the  United 
States,  and  in  that  spirit  by  which  we  measure 
men  more  by  their  worth  than  by  their  birth. 

11  The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp, 
The  man 's  the  gowd  for  a '  that. ' ' 

And  then  we  agree  also  in  that  love  of  national 
liberty;  of  freedom  bred  in  the  bones  of  every 
nation  that  has  struggled  for  and  achieved  it. 
They  all,  you  all,  we  all,  worship  the  champions 
that  have  helped  us  win  it  even  for  centuries  after 
they  are  turned  to  dust,  and  if  liberty  ever  should 

233 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

be  in  danger  on  either  continent,  we  should  invoke 
their  venerated  names  and  spirits. 

"  Oh,  once  again  to  freedom's  cause  return 

The  patriot  Tell,  the  Bruce  of  Bannockburn. 
0  'er  the  broad  ocean  let  the  summons  run 
And  wake  to  life  the  sword  of  Washington. " 

We  acknowledge  with  gratitude  the  service 
which  Scotchmen  have  rendered  to  us  in  every 
period  of  our  national  history.  They  helped  us 
found  more  than  one  of  our  infant  colonies ;  they 
helped  us  to  win  our  independence ;  and  in  your 
ancient  cemetery,  the  monument  erected  to  our 
great  patriot,  Lincoln,  (the  first  erected  to  him  on 
this  side  of  the  water)  recalls  the  valor  of  Scot 
tish  soldiers  who  helped  us  to  maintain  our  politi 
cal  independence ;  to  strike  the  shackles  from  the 
limbs  of  four  millions  of  slaves,  and  to  prove,  in 
the  words  of  our  martyr  President,  that '  '  govern 
ment  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the 
people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. ' ' 

I  have  been  told  to-night  to  propose  the  theme 
of  literature,  but  that  entire  sentiment  at  this 
place  and  in  this  presence  centres  upon  the  name 
and  personality  of  one  man.  All  the  other  fixed 
stars  in  the  spacious  firmament  of  Scottish  litera 
ture  must  pale  a  little  to-night  before  the  light  of 
this  central  luminary. 

To  an  American  visiting,  for  the  first  time, 
Scotland  and  your  romantic,  your  picturesque, 
your  beautiful  city  of  Edinburgh,  everything 

234 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

around  him  speaks  of  Scott.  Go  where  you  will, 
turn  in  whichever  direction,  his  name  seems  to 
sanctify  and  hallow  everything.  I  have  read  in 
your  last  annual  report,  and  to  my  intense  amaze 
ment,  that  it  requires  the  efforts  of  the  Society  to 
induce  the  schoolboys  of  Edinburgh  to  read  Wal 
ter  Scott's  works.  I  can  hardly  believe  it.  No,  I 
will  not  believe  it.  Why,  in  America  he  finds  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  of  readers  every  year.  The 
press  teems  with  new  editions,  and  every  educated 
man  is  supposed  to  be,  and  is  really,  familiar  with 
his  leading  poems  and  romances.  When  we  come 
here  we  do  not  come  as  strangers.  He  has  made 
us  feel  at  home,  more  at  home  in  Edinburgh  than 
in  any  other  city  of  Europe.  There  is  not  any 
other  city,  not  even  Rome  itself,  that  has  become 
so  familiar  to  Americans  who  have  never  seen  it, 
than  this  beautiful  city  of  yours,  and  all  thanks 
to  the  marvellous  descriptions  of  this  your  be 
loved  poet  and  novelist. 

So,  when  we  come  here,  we  come,  as  it  were,  as 
pilgrims  to  visit  shrines  that  he  has  made  familiar 
in  story;  to  the  haunts  and  homes  of  his  heroes 
and  heroines;  to  Arthur's  Seat  and  Holyrood; 
to  his  own  professional  and  personal  places;  to 
Abbotsf ord,  the  sad  memorial  of  his  tragic  strug 
gle,  and  Dryburgh  Abbey,  where  his  sacred  dust 
reposes,  while  his  spirit  still  walks  abroad  among 
all  English  speaking  peoples,  to  fill  them  with  love 
of  Scotland,  its  history,  its  scenery  and  its  people. 

Carlyle  has  said,  after  nobly  describing  Scott 
as  the  pride  of  all  Scotsmen,  giving  him  credit  for 

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SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

an  open  soul  —  a  wide,  far  reaching  soul  —  that 
carried  him  out  in  absolute  sympathy  with  all 
human  things  and  people ;  after  giving  him  credit 
for  that  wonderful  and  innate  love  of  the  beauty 
of  nature  and  the  power  of  describing  it,  and  his 
infinite  sympathy  with  man  as  well  as  with 
nature,  he  has,  in  one  of  his  most  acrid  utterances, 
said  that  if  literature  has  no  other  task  than 
pleasantly  to  amuse  indolent,  languid  men,  why 
here  in  Scott  was  the  perfection  of  literature. 
Well,  now,  for  one,  I  must  confess  that  every  now 
and  then,  I  am  one  of  those  indolent,  languid  men, 
and  as  I  look  along  these  tables,  if  I  rightly  study 
your  characters  and  moods,  I  suspect  that  this  is 
a  great  group  of  those  indolent,  languid  men,  who 
believe  that  it  is  not  the  only  task,  but  that  it  is 
one  of  the  most  valuable  tasks  of  literature  to 
amuse  and  to  entertain  mankind. 

I  have  often  thought  that  I  would  rather  have 
been  the  author  of  one  such  book  as  Waverley,  or 
Kenilworth,  or  Henry  Esmond,  or  Romola,  than 
to  achieve  any  other  kind  of  personal,  profes 
sional  or  public  fame.  The  good  that  these  books 
do  us,  the  rest  they  give  us,  the  enjoyment  they 
yield  us  anlong  the  hundreds  of  millions  who  read 
the  language  in  which  they  are  written,  is  abso 
lutely  infinite,  and  the  fame  that  the  author  of 
such  a  book  wins  rivals,  if  it  does  not  outshine,  all 
other  kinds  of  fame. 

Look  at  it  now !  Waverley  was  written  in  1814, 
a  memorable  event  in  the  history  of  British  litera 
ture;  the  battle  of  Waterloo  was  fought  in  the 

236 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

next  year,  one  of  the  great  critical  battles  of  all 
human  history.  Eighty-five  years  have  gone  by 
since  then,  and  which  name  is  now  dearer  to  man 
kind?  Which  one  now  enjoys  the  wider  and  the 
better  fame,  Wellington  or  Walter  Scott?  I  shall 
not  answer  that  question.  I  leave  every  man  to 
answer  it  for  himself. 

So  much  has  been  said  about  Walter  Scott  to 
night  that  I  will  not  tell  you  all  I  wish  to  say 
about  him.  I  would  like  to  recaJJ  just  four  points 
of  his  character,  which  are  the  dearest  to  me  in  it 
all  —  his  humanity,  his  cleanliness,  his  heroic  in 
dustry  and  his  patriotism. 

His  humanity!  He  was  the  most  humane  of 
men,  with  the  sunniest  of  souls  in  the  soundest  of 
bodies,  and  with  a  cheerful  and  happy  tempera 
ment  which  is  always  worth  millions  to  its  pos 
sessor.  What  would  not  Carlyle  have  given  for 
a  share  of  it?  He  loved  God  and  he  loved  man, 
and  what  more  can  you  say?  His  heart  went  out 
to  all  his  fellow  men  and  theirs  in  turn  came  back 
to  him.  Everybody  loved  him.  Even  the  dumb 
animals  fawned  at  his  feet,  and  it  was  this  in 
tense,  everloving  and  glowing  humanity  that  was 
in  his  heart  that  made  him  as  he  was  in  his 
day  and  generation,  the  most  popular  man  in  all 
the  world. 

Well,  this  humanity  was  godliness,  and  it  is  the 
old  proverb  that  "  cleanliness  is  next  to  godli 
ness."  Now,  to  have  written  so  much,  to  have 
found  so  many  millions  of  readers,  to  have  found 
his  way  in  every  family,  in  every  land  that  reads 

237 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

at  all,  and  yet  not  one  word  in  the  whole,  not  one 
word  that  he,  dying,  would  wish  to  erase,  not  one 
false  suggestion,  not  one  double  meaning,  not  a 
single  thought  or  suggestion  that  could  bring  a 
blush  to  the  cheek  of  the  most  innocent  and  deli 
cate  reader.  This  ought  not  to  be  high  praise,  but 
it  is  high  praise  when  you  recall  some  modern 
novels,  not  French  only,  but  some  English,  which 
have  brought  fame  and  profit  to  their  authors, 
which  find  their  way  into  every  family  upon  the 
plea  that  everybody  reads  them,  catering  to  the 
morbid  passion  for  mental  and  nervous  stimulus, 
and  which  present  to  the  minds  of  our  young 
people  scenes  and  incidents  which  men  and  women 
of  the  world  cannot  read  without  a  shudder. 

I  am  happy  to  believe  that  there  is  a  reaction 
from  the  modern  poison;  that  there  is  a  return 
to  a  better  state  of  feeling.  Lead  the  minds  of  our 
young  people  back  to  the  more  wholesome  diet, 
such  as  Scott  and  Thackeray  and  Dickens  and 
George  Eliot  provide,  and  I  recognize,  in  the 
work  of  this  Society,  a  step  in  that  direction.  It 
is  not  in  vain  that  you  have  taken  up  such  a  work 
as  that.  Literature  ought  not  to  contain  such 
poison  as  I  have  referred  to,  and,  thanks  to  such 
men  as  Scott,  Thackeray  and  Dickens,  and  such 
women  as  George  Eliot,  there  is  ample  reading 
without  any  resort  to  that. 

And  then  his  heroic  industry.  Shall  I  say  one 
word  about  that  1  Scotchmen  and  Americans  have 
been  brought  up  for  so  many  generations  upon  the 
gospel  of  hard  work  that  mere  industry  is  not 

238 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

such  a  venerable  virtue,  but  in  him  it  indicated 
that  high  reserve,  that  indomitable  purpose,  which 
has  hardly  beeji  manifested  in  such  force  by  any 
other  man  in  all  my  reading.  When  adversity 
overwhelmed  him,  when  great  schemes  that  he  had 
built  up  with  so  much  ambition  came  toppling 
about  his  head,  he  never  wavered.  He  lost  not 
one  jot  of  heart  or  life.  He  held  his  head  erect 
and  worked  on,  until  his  tireless  pen  dropped 
from  his  dying  hand.  Every  hour  was  full  of  life 
and  aspiration  to  the  end,  and  he  personified  in  his 
own  action,  in  his  own  fashion,  his  own  favorite 
maxim : 

"  One  crowded  hour  of  glorious  life 
Is  worth  an  age  without  a  name." 

And  then  his  patriotism,  noblest  and  proudest 
of  his  gifts.  He  loved  his  country  with  an  in 
tensity  exceeding  that  of  woman.  He  never  tired 
of  describing  the  glorious  virtues  of  Scottish 
heroes,  the  beauties  of  Scottish  landscape,  and  all 
that  went  to  make  the  land  of  his  birth  heroic  and 
beautiful.  And  so  he  drew  the  eyes  and  hearts 
of  all  men  hither  to  admire  and  to  love.  His 
biographer  says  that  upon  the  publication  of  the 
Lady  of  the  Lake,  swarms  of  English  tourists 
came  flocking  over  the  borders  the  next  summer, 
to  visit  the  places  which  his  magic  pen  had  de 
scribed. 

But  that  was  not  all.  This  patriotic  fervor,  this 
irresistible  charm  which  mark  all  his  writings, 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT 

goes  a  great  deal  deeper  and  further  than  that. 
It  inspires  the  hearts  of  his  young  countrymen 
to  imitate  the  heroic  deeds  of  their  ancestors 
whom  he  so  fondly  loved  to  describe.  Wherever 
the  Scottish  soldier  goes,  wherever  you  find  him 
in  the  hour  of  trial,  in  the  trenches,  in  the  hos 
pital,  or  in  the  camp,  you  find  in  many  a  knap 
sack  stray  copies  of  Marmion,  Bob  Roy,  or  other 
of  his  charming  works,  for  the  solace  and  enter 
tainment  and  inspiration  of  the  soldier  who  has 
gone  forth  to  battle.  If  you  hear,  as  you  will 
hear,  of  young  soldiers  of  Scotland  doing  great 
deeds  and  dying  heroes'  deaths,  I  am  sure  you 
will  give  some  of  the  credit  to  this  great  wizard 
of  the  North,  who  has  inspired  them  with  his  own 
patriotic  fervor. 

Scott  stands  midway  between  Burns  and  Car- 
lyle  in  your  literature.  How  fortunate  the  coun 
try,  the  little  country,  that  has  produced,  in  a 
single  century,  three  such  wonders  as  these. 
Where  will  you  find  the  like  I  Search  through  his 
tory,  ancient  and  modern  —  where  will  you  find 
three  such  wonderful  boasts  of  literature  as 
Burns,  Scott  and  Carlyle  1  The  emerald,  the  ruby 
and  the  diamond,  the  three  great  jewels  in  Scot 
land's  crown.  And  in  their  name  I  give  you  the 
toast  of  Literature,  and  I  am  proud  and  happy  to 
couple  with  it  the  name  of  one  who  has  done,  I 
think,  as  much  as  any  other  living  man  to  keep  the 
well  of  English  pure  and  undefiled.  I  give  you  the 
toast  of  Literature  and  Mr.  Andrew  Lang. 


240 


THE   ENGLISH  BIBLE 


THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE 

Address  at  the  Centenary  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
London,  May,  1904. 

MY  Lord  Northampton,  Ladies  and  Gentle 
men  :  —  I  consider  it  a  very  great  honor  to 
be  privileged  to  appear  before  this  great  audience 
assembled  from  all  the  Christian  nations  to-night, 
to  represent  first,  my  country,  and  secondly,  the 
American  Bible  Society,  as  one  of  its  delegates. 

I  shall  take  as  my  text  for  the  brief  discourse 
that  I  am  privileged  to  address  to  you,  a  direct 
message  which  I  have  received  by  cable  from  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

The  President,  no  matter  what  heavy  responsi 
bility,  no  matter  what  serious  labors  may  rest 
upon  him,  is  always  ready  with  a  good  work 
and  a  helping  hand  for  every  great  and  worthy 
cause.  The  President  cables:  "  Convey  to  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  my  hearty  con 
gratulations  on  their  Centenary  and  my  earnest 
wish  for  the  continued  success  of  their  good  work. 
Theodore  Boosevelt." 

My  Lord  Northampton,  for  the  American  Bible 
Society  and  in  its  name,  I  have  the  honor,  in 
common  with  my  fellow-delegate,  the  Eeverend 
Dr.  Ingersoll,  to  submit  this  address  to  the  Presi 
dent,  Vice-Presidents  and  officers  of  your  Society : 

243 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

"  Gentlemen  and  Brethren,  we,  the  President, 
Vice-Presidents,  Officers  and  Managers  of  the 
American  Bible  Society,  in  accepting  the  honor  of 
an  invitation  to  the  celebration  of  the  One  Hun 
dredth  Anniversary  of  your  Society,  and  in  join 
ing  the  great  number  of  those  who  congratulate 
you  on  the  honorable  and  auspicious  accomplish 
ment  of  your  first  centenary,  do  hereby  pay  our 
hearty  tribute  of  gratitude,  admiration  and  rever 
ence  to  our  elder  sister. 

"  The  organizers  of  our  Society  acknowledge, 
with  deep  gratitude,  the  generous  gift  of  money 
and  of  sympathy  with  which  the  British  and  For 
eign  Bible  Society  brightened  our  first  years.  In 
all  our  career,  we  have  been  stimulated  by  your 
faithful  example. 

' '  In  recognition  of  the  wonderful  achievements 
made  possible  by  your  steady  fortitude  and  noble 
devotion  in  all  lands,  it  has  pleased  us  to  designate 
as  our  official  representatives  to  your  celebration 
the  Eeverend  Edward  Payson  Ingersoll,  D.  D., 
Corresponding  Secretary,  and  the  Honorable 
Joseph  H.  Choate,  the  Ambassador  at  the  Court 
of  St.  James  to  bear  personal  testimony  at  your 
Centenary  of  our  fraternal  regard  and  steadfast 
confidence.  We  who  send  these  greetings  and 
salutations,  recognizing  your  high  aims  and  noble 
endeavors  in  every  domain  of  your  activity,  com 
mend  you  to  Him  whose  we  are  and  whom  we 
serve,  praying  that  He  may  continue  to  be  your 
light  and  guide  until  the  Word  shall  be  fulfilled. 
1  They  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neigh- 

244 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

bor  and  every  man  his  brother,  saying  "  Know 
the  Lord,"  for  they  shall  know  Me  from  the  least 
of  them  and  unto  the  greatest  of  them.' 

"  Adopted  by  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the 
American  Bible  Society  February  4,  1904. 

"  DANIEL  COIT  OILMAN,  President. 

"  WILLIAM  INGRAHAM  HAVEN,  Secretary." 

And  now  let  me  say  that  the  President,  in  his 
hearty  message  of  good  cheer,  and  the  American 
Bible  Society  in  their  more  formal  address,  have 
but  spoken  the  sentiments  of  the  entire  people 
of  the  United  States,  who  have  justified  from  the 
beginning  the  cordial  and  hearty  support  which 
you  have  given  to  the  American  Bible  Society  for 
the  last  eighty-six  years. 

I  was  going  to  say  that  the  American  Bible 
Society  is  your  own  offspring,  but,  inasmuch  as 
you  yourselves  were  only  twelve  years  old  when 
it  came  into  being,  I  must  regard  you  as  our  elder 
sister,  and  our  elder  sister  it  was  who  showed  us 
the  way,  who  encouraged  us  in  our  small  begin 
ning,  who  sent  us  a  grant  of  five  hundred  pounds 
from  her  treasury  to  start  with,  which  was  a  tre 
mendous  help  in  those  days,  and  who  has  ever 
since  been  leading  the  way  which  we  have  been 
glad  to  follow. 

Let  me  say  one  word  more  about  the  American 
Bible  Society.  Like  yourselves,  it  has  had  its 
struggles  and  its  triumphs.  Like  yourselves,  it 
has  an  immense  work  on  hand.  lake  yourselves, 
it  finds  the  demand  far  greater  than  the  supply 

245 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

that  it  is  able  to  furnish.  It  is  no  small  under 
taking  to  keep  eighty  millions  of  people  supplied 
with  a  Bible  in  every  house,  and  that  has  been 
their  ambition.  And  then  they  have  to  meet  about 
eight  hundred  thousand  immigrants  from  foreign 
lands  every  year  as  they  land  in  New  York  and 
other  parts  of  the  country,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  they  are  not  always  provided  with  Bibles,  and 
the  Society  has  to  take  care  of  them.  But  with  all 
that,  I  think  its  records  will  show,  as  in  the  past, 
that  now  and  in  the  future,  it  can  be  relied  on  to 
do  almost  as  much  for  foreign  lands  as  it  does 
for  its  own  people  at  home. 

Now  this  great  harvest  which  this  centenary 
demonstrates,  is  only,  after  all,  what  has  grown 
up  from  the  little  seed  which,  nearly  three  hundred 
years  ago,  your  fathers  and  our  fathers  united 
in  planting  in  the  distant  wilderness.  When  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  embarked  in  the  Mayflower  in 
1620,  and  when,  eight  years  afterwards,  the  great 
Puritan  immigration  from  old  England  to  New 
England  set  in,  they  carried  with  them,  our 
fathers  and  the  brothers  of  your  fathers,  carried 
with  them,  as  their  best  possession  —  in  fact,  the 
only  one  which  was  to  have  a  lasting  value  — 
King  James's  Bible,  upon  which  their  infant  State 
was  built.  It  was  their  only  book  —  their  only 
readable  book.  I  have  read  catalogues  of  the 
books  which  some  who  were  best  off  among  them 
had,  and  the  Bible  was  the  only  readable  book,  and 
that  was  readable  by  every  man,  woman  and  child. 
It  was  the  ark  of  their  covenant,  and,  really,  they 

246 


THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE 

did  find,  within  those  sacred  covers,  their  shelter 
from  the  stormy  blast  and  their  eternal  home. 
Their  faith  was  founded  upon  it,  and  having 
no  other  book,  you  can  realize  how  there  they 
stood  to  find,  not  their  religion  only,  but  their 
literature,  their  biographies,  their  voyages  and 
travels,  their  poetry,  such  as  no  poets  have  ever 
since  produced,  and  that  magnificent  march  of 
history  from  the  beginning,  and  they  searched  and 
found  in  it  the  golden  rules  of  life. 

I  do  not  know  that  I  can  more  forcibly  bring 
before  you  how  completely  the  Bible  was  their  one 
treasure,  than  by  describing  one  of  the  few  family 
Bibles  that  have  come  down  from  those  days  to 
ours  —  the  only  legacy  that  has  reached  the  re 
mote  posterity  of  the  family  to  which  it  belonged. 
It  was  read  twice  a  day  in  every  family  by  the 
head  of  the  household,  with  all  the  members 
gathered  about  him,  going  in  at  Genesis  and  com 
ing  out  at  Kevelations,  the  whole  journey  being 
accomplished  twice  every  year  between  January 
and  December.  Dog's-eared?  —  that  is  a  mild 
term  to  express  its  condition,  for  its  leaves  were 
absolutely  worn  away  by  the  pious  thumbs  that 
had  turned  them.  It  was  really  the  fact  that  New 
England,  in  its  first  generation,  was  the  most 
biblical  community  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Their 
laws,  their  customs,  their  language,  their  habits, 
were  founded  upon  it,  and  in  it  they  found  their 
sole  guide  of  life. 

Let  me  read  a  word  from  one  of  the  greatest 
of  their  descendants,  Phillips  Brooks,  that  most 

247 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

noble  product  of  New  England  culture,  himself 
a  true  descendant  of  their  blood.  He  said  worth 
ily  of  them  (I  could  not  begin  to  find  language 
equal  to  his  in  point  of  expression)  :  "  It  never 
frightened  a  Puritan  when  you  bade  him  stand 
still  and  listen  to  the  voice  of  God.  His  closet  and 
his  church  were  full  of  the  reverberations  of  the 
awful,  gracious,  beautiful  voice  for  which  he 
listened.  He  made  little,  too  little,  of  sacraments 
and  priests,  because  God  was  so  intensely  real  to 
him.  What  should  he  do  with  lenses  who  stood 
thus  full  in  the  torrent  of  the  sunshine?  " 

Our  New  England  fathers,  with  the  Bible  as  the 
basis  of  their  lives,  realized  that  prayer  of  Eras 
mus,  uttered  one  hundred  years  before  they  found 
foothold  upon  Plymouth  Bock,  —  a  prayer  which 
it  was  often  dangerous  to  breathe  in  those  early 
days:  "  I  wish  the  Gospels  were  translated  into 
the  languages  of  all  people,  that  they  might  be 
read  and  known  not  only  by  the  Scotch  and  the 
Irish  and  the  English,  of  course,  but  even  by  the 
Turks  and  the  Saracens.  I  wish  that  the  husband 
man  may  sing  parts  of  them  at  his  plow ;  that  the 
weaver  may  warble  them  at  his  shuttle ;  that  the 
traveler  may,  with  their  narration,  beguile  the 
weariness  of  the  way." 

Well,  our  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  exactly  the  kind 
of  men  that  you  might  expect  them  to  have  been. 
I  wish  you  would  just  imagine,  for  one  moment, 
what  our  lives  would  be  if,  like  them,  the  Bible 
were  our  only  book.  No  newspapers,  no  weeklies, 
no  magazines,  no  novels,  no  libraries,  no  school 

248 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

reading  of  any  kind.  I  only  hope  that  we,  like 
them,  would  find  our  refuge  where  they  so  safely 
found  theirs. 

In  the  days  of  their  greatest  poverty  and  dis 
tress,  they  founded  Harvard  College,  in  order,  as 
they  said,  that  the  supply  of  learned  and  godly 
ministers  might  never  fail,  and  they  gave  it  a 
motto  which  holds  to  this  day:  "  To  Christ  and 
the  Church,"  and,  what  means  the  same  thing, 
"  Veritas  "  (truth),  and  then  they  founded  the 
great  State  of  Massachusetts,  which  I  shall  not  ask 
you  for  one  moment  to  hear  about.  I  can  only 
say  what  Mr.  Webster  says  of  her:  "  Massachu 
setts,  she  needs  no  eulogy.  There  she  stands; 
behold  her  and  judge  for  yourselves." 

If  you  ask  me  what  more  has  come  of  it,  what 
other  good  things  founded  upon  the  Bible,  besides 
Plymouth  Eock  and  Boston,  I  should  say  that  a 
very  large  share  of  the  good  which  has  been 
wrought  out  in  America  from  the  beginning  is 
traceable  to  their  pious  efforts,  that  if  the  common 
schools  have  found  their  way  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific ;  if  slavery  has  been  abolished ;  if 
the  whole  land  has  been  changed  from  a  wilder 
ness  into  a  garden  of  plenty,  from  ocean  to  ocean ; 
if  education  has  been  fostered  according  to  the 
best  light  of  each  generation  since  then;  if  in 
dustry,  frugality  and  sobriety  are  the  watchwords 
of  the  nation,  as  I  believe  them  to  be,  I  say  it  is 
largely  due  to  those  first  emigrants,  who  landing 
with  the  English  Bible  in  their  hands  and  in  their 
hearts,  and  assisted  by  men  like  themselves  here 

249 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

in  London,  established  themselves  on  the  shores 
of  America. 

Without  detracting  at  all  from  the  great  part 
which  has  been  contributed  from  other  countries, 
we  say  that  that  little  leaven  has  leavened  the 
whole  lump,  and  if  you  ask  me  what  the  signs  of 
the  leavening  of  the  lump  are,  I  point  again  to  the 
work  of  the  American  Bible  Society  and  its  rela 
tion  to  that  community.  It  is  liberally  supported 
and  encouraged  by  many  ardent  friends  in  every 
state  and  in  every  territory  of  the  Union.  I  point 
to  the  fame  and  influence  which  it  has  acquired 
'throughout  the  land.  I  point  to  the  millions  of 
dollars  which  it  is  gathering  in  for  this  pious 
use,  and  to  the  scores  of  millions  of  Bibles  which 
it  has  distributed,  on  the  principle  always  of  the 
whole  Bible  for  the  whole  world,  to  all  but  the 
poor  at  cost,  to  every  one  of  the  poor  without 
money  and  without  price. 

And  now,  before  I  sit  down,  I  should  like  to 
make  a  claim  for  my  country  which  may  be  a  little 
surprising  to  this  audience,  and  that  is  that  one 
of  the  first  translations  from  the  English  text  of 
the  whole  Bible  into  a  heathen  language,  was  made 
in  the  earliest  days  of  Massachusetts  with  the 
great  aid  that  was  sent  over  to  us  from  London. 
There  came  over  to  us  in  1639  a  poor  clergyman 
from  Jesus  College,  Cambridge.  There  he  had 
been  distinguished  for  his  studies  in  theology  and 
for  the  study  of  languages,  and  when  he  came 
to  America  he  made  himself  busy  in  connection 
with  that  peaceful,  harmless  tribe  of  Indians  who 

250 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

made  their  home  in  Massachusetts,  and  tried  to 
teach  them  the  word  of  God.  After  he  had 
learned  their  language,  and  it  took  him  about 
twelve  years  to  learn,  he  sent  over  a  cry  for  help, 
and  he  got  a  response.  The  same  cry  and  the 
same  response  has  been  going  on  to  this  day: 
"  Can  we  to  souls  benighted  the  lamp  of  life 
deny?  '  What  was  the  response?  Why,  Parlia 
ment,  consisting  then  only  of  the  Commons,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  organized  a  society  entitled  "  The 
Corporation  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  New  England/'  And  the  pre 
amble  of  the  act  passed  in  connection  with  this 
society  is  a  very  remarkable  one  and  shows  how 
interesting  was  the  relationship  which  our  an 
cestors  bore  to  the  Indians  to  whom  they  held  out 
the  hand  of  fellowship.  Here  it  is : 

"  Whereas,  the  Commons  of  England  have  re 
ceived  certain  intelligence  by  the  testimonial  of 
divers  faithful  and  godly  ministers  in  New  Eng 
land,  that  divers  heathen  natives  of  that  country, 
through  the  blessing  of  God,  upon  the  pious  char 
acter  and  pains  of  some  godly  English  of  this 
nation,  who  preached  the  gospel  to  them  in  their 
own  Indian  language,  who  not  only  of  barbarous 
have  become  civil,  but  many  of  them,  forsaking 
their  accustomed  charms  and  sorceries  and  other 
Satanical  delusions,  do  now  call  upon  the  name  of 
the  Lord  —  with  tears  lamenting  their  misspent 
lives,  teaching  their  children  what  they  are  in 
structed  in  themselves,  being  careful  to  place  their 
said  children  in  godly  English  families  and  to  put 

251 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

them  to  English,  schools,  betaking  to  themselves 
but  one  wife  and  putting  away  the  rest,  and  by 
their  constant  prayer  to  Almighty  Grod  morning 
and  evening  in  their  families,  expressed  to  all 
appearances  with  much  devotion  and  zeal  of 
heart,  Therefore,"  etc.,  etc. 

Therefore  the  Commons  established  this  cor 
poration  to  raise  a  fund  in  England  for  this  pur 
pose,  and  by  their  apostle  John  Elliot,  completed, 
as  early  as  1663,  or  one  hundred  and  forty  years 
before  the  foundation  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  a  complete  version  of  the  Bible  in 
the  Algonquin  tongue.  Probably  there  is  not  a 
man  now  living  who  can  read  a  word  of  it.  Cer 
tainly  there  is  not  a  vestige  of  the  tribe  for  whom 
it  was  written,  but  it  is  a  grand  monument  for  its 
author,  and  it  pointed  the  way  for  this  Society 
and  for  the  American  Bible  Society. 

I  cannot  take  up  any  more  of  your  time.  I  only 
wish  to  ask,  What  is  it  that  we  are  working  for  as 
societies?  Each  for  its  own  interest  primarily, 
but,  next  to  that,  we  have  a  greater  and  a  further 
mission,  and  that  is  to  promote  and  advance  the 
cause  of  civilization,  of  order,  of  religion,  of  peace 
and  of  duty.  I  believe  that  such  occasions  as  this 
go  far  in  the  accomplishment  of  that  mission. 
How  far,  then,  is  it  possible  to  make  these  two 
great  nations  policemen  to  keep  the  peace  of  the 
world?  Some  rely  upon  armies  and  on  navies, 
upon  armaments  and  gunpowder  and  lyddite  and 
dynamite  as  the  best  guarantees  of  the  preserva 
tion  of  peace,  but  sometimes  these  things  explode 

252 


THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE 

when  least  expected.  Others  rely  upon  the  slow 
and  tortuous  processes  of  diplomacy,  but  diplo 
macy  sometimes  fails,  as  we  have  had  illustrations 
lately. 

I  believe,  and  I  think  that  the  British  and  For 
eign  Bible  Society  and  the  American  Bible  Society 
unite  in  that  belief,  that  the  only  sure  guarantee 
of  peace  is  the  moral  influence  of  public  opinion. 
Let  each  nation  and  the  people  of  each  nation  give 
their  governments  to  understand  that  they  are  for 
peace  and  there  will  be  no  war.  I  believe  that  if 
these  two  nations  which  you  and  I  represent  were 
to  set  the  example,  the  other  Christian  nations 
would  follow.  Nothing  could  withstand  such  a 
weight  of  public  opinion  based  upon  this  book, 
which  speaks  always  to  the  world  for  peace  and 
good  will,  "  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men." 
I  believe  in  co-operation  in  good  work,  in  every 
good  work  possible,  between  the  people  of  our  two 
countries.  Why  should  we  not  co-operate  in  all 
good  work,  we  who  have  one  God,  one  Bible,  one 
language  and  one  destiny? 


253 


ADDRESS  AT  DINNER   GIVEN  TO 

MR.   CHOATE  BY  THE   BENCH 

AND  BAR  OF  ENGLAND 

AT  LINCOLN'S  INN,   APRIL   14th,   1905 


ADDRESS  AT  DINNER  GIVEN 

TO  MR.  CHOATE  BY  THE 

BENCH  AND  BAR  OF 

ENGLAND 

AT  LINCOLN'S   INN,   APRIL   14th,   1905 

MY  Lord  Chancellor,  my  Lords,  and  Gentle 
men,  —  I  may  say  brothers  all,  for  I  accept 
your  presence  here  to-night  as  a  signal  proof  that 
neither  time,  nor  distance,  nor  oceans,  nor  con 
tinents  can  weaken  the  ties  of  sympathy  and  fra 
ternity  between  the  members  of  our  noble  pro 
fession  wherever  the  English  law  has  reached  or 
the  English  tongue  is  spoken.  On  this  spot,  con 
secrated  for  centuries  —  I  was  going  to  say  for 
unnumbered  centuries  —  to  the  study  and  de 
velopment  of  the  law,  I  feel  that  we  are  gathered 
to-night  for  a  veritable  professional  love-feast,  if 
I  can  judge  from  the  kindly  words  of  the  Lord 
Chancellor  and  the  Attorney-General  and  from 
your  genial  countenances.  No  profane  presence 
of  laymen,  no  troublesome  affairs  of  clients, 
can  disturb  us  here  to-night.  We  are  all  lawyers, 
except  the  Judges,  and  they,  too,  are  lawyers  who 
have  soared  in  ascension  robes  to  a  higher  and 

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BENCH    AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

nobler  sphere.  I  thank  you  all  from  the  bottom 
of  my  heart.  For  an  American  lawyer  who  long 
since  withdrew  from  the  arena  to  find  himself  the 
guest  of  the  united  Bench  and  Bar  of  England, 
supported  by  the  presence  of  all  that  is  illustri 
ous  and  famous  among  them,  is  a  position  which 
only  overcomes  me  with  a  sense  of  my  own  un- 
worthiness  of  the  compliment  you  have  paid  me. 
I  cannot  but  feel  that  in  my  person  and  over  my 
head  you  desire  to  pay  an  unexampled  honor  to 
the  great  country  that  I  represent,  to  its  Bench 
and  Bar,  that  daily  share  your  labors  and  keep 
step  with  your  progress,  and  to  the  great  office 
that  I  am  about  to  lay  down. 

Let  me  say  a  single  word  about  the  altogether 
too  lavish  compliments  that  the  Lord  Chancellor 
has  paid  me  in  respect  to  my  official  career  in 
England.  My  task  has  not  been  the  difficult  work 
of  diplomacy  to  which  he  has  referred.  It  has  all, 
from  the  day  of  my  arrival  here  until  now,  been 
made  absolutely  easy  by  the  spirit  with  which  I 
have  been  received.  The  two  representatives  of 
this  great  country  with  whom  I  have  had  to  do 
at  the  Foreign  Office  —  Lord  Salisbury  and  Lord 
Lansdowne  —  have  made  my  task  perfectly  easy, 
not  only  because  they  have  always  practised  the 
modern  diplomacy,  meaning  what  they  say  and 
saying  what  they  mean,  with  never  a  card  up  any 
sleeve  on  either  side,  but  because  in  every  single 
incident  they  have  met  me  more  than  half-way  in 
all  that  went  towards  conciliation,  harmony,  and 
union  between  the  two  countries.  It  was  also 

258 


BENCH    AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

easy  for  us  on  both  sides  for  other  reasons  —  be 
cause  the  two  great  chiefs  of  State  on  either  side, 
the  late  illustrious  Queen  and  the  present  oc 
cupant  of  the  Throne,  his  not  less  illustrious  Maj 
esty,  upon  the  one  side,  and  President  McKinley 
and  President  Roosevelt  upon  the  other,  have  all 
the  while  been  determined  that  the  two  countries 
should  be  friends;  and,  back  of  all  that,  a  cir 
cumstance  which  gave  great  force  to  everything 
that  either  has  ever  said,  the  rank  and  file,  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  on  either  side,  were  de 
termined  that  nothing  should  happen  to  impair 
the  friendship  of  the  two  peoples.  I  cannot  tell 
you  how  much  I  thank  you  for  your  presence  here 
to-night.  I  am  especially  proud  that  the  chair  is 
occupied  by  the  Lord  Chancellor,  whose  name  in 
both  countries  is  a  synonym  for  equity  and  jus 
tice.  In  spite  of  his  thirty-five  years  at  the  Bar 
and  his  eighteen  years  upon  the  Woolsack,  he  is 
the  very  incarnation  of  perennial  youth.  Time, 
like  an  ever-rolling  stream,  bears  all  its  sons  away, 
but  the  Lord  Chancellor  seems  to  stem  the  tide  of 
time.  Instead  of  retreating  like  the  rest  of  us 
before  its  advancing  waves,  he  is  actually  working 
his  way  up  stream.  He  demonstrates  what  I  have 
been  trying  to  prove  for  the  last  three  years,  that 
the  eighth  decade  of  life  is  far  the  best,  and  I  am 
sure  he  will  join  with  me  in  advising  you  all  to 
hurry  up  and  get  into  it  as  soon  as  you  can.  He 
gave  me  his  personal  friendship  immediately 
after  my  arrival  here,  which  has  all  the  time  been 
growing  stronger  and  stronger ;  and,  while  he  has 

259 


BENCH    AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

been  drinking  at  some  mysterious  fountain  that 
always  renewed  his  mind  and  his  body,  I  can  an 
swer  for  it  that  his  heart  has  all  the  time  been 
growing  younger  and  fresher  and  warmer.  I 
must  also  acknowledge  with  gratitude  the  pres 
ence  of  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  to-night.  He,  too, 
has  graced  my  life  in  England  with  his  friendship. 
His  name  is  a  household  word  in  America.  He  is 
held  in  the  highest  esteem  and  honor ;  and  I  only 
hope  that  he  will  yield  to  my  repeated  persuasions 
to  come  over  and  give  us  a  chance  to  show  how 
much  we  like  him. 

The  occasion  and  the  Lord  Chancellor's  and  At 
torney-General's  most  kindly  words,  I  am  afraid, 
will  make  me  a  little  egotistical.  I  must  disavow 
what  they  have  so  strongly  pressed  —  my  great 
prominence  in  the  profession.  I  only  tried  always 
to  keep  my  oath  to  do  my  duty  by  my  client  and 
the  Court ;  but  I  will  confess  that  from  the  begin 
ning  to  the  end  of  my  forty-four  years  at  the  Bar 
I  loved  the  profession  with  all  the  ardor  and  inten 
sity  that  that  jealous  mistress  the  law  could  ever 
exact,  and  was  always  trying  to  pay  back  the  debt 
which,  as  Lord  Bacon  says,  we  all  owe  to  the  pro 
fession  that  honors  us.  In  my  youngest  days  I 
could  not  resist  the  attraction  of  those  historic 
and  dramatic  scenes  and  incidents  in  the  lives  of 
the  world's  great  advocates  which  everybody 
knows.  Who  would  not  have  given  a  year's  ran 
som,  a  year  of  his  life,  to  have  heard  Somers,  in 
the  case  of  the  seven  Bishops,  in  a  speech  of  only 
five  minutes,  breaking  the  rod  of  the  oppressor, 

260 


BENCH    AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

winning  the  great  cause,  and  at  one  bound  taking 
his  place,  the  foremost  place,  among  the  orators 
and  jurists  of  England ;  or  Erskine,  the  greatest 
advocate  anywhere  and  of  all  time,  when  he  dared 
to  brave  even  the  mighty  Mansfield's  admonition 
that  Lord  Sandwich  was  not  before  the  Court? 
"  I  know  he  is  not  before  the  Court,  and  for  that 
very  reason  I  will  bring  him  before  the  Court. " 
He  entered  the  tribunal  that  morning  an  abso 
lutely  briefless  barrister,  and  went  out  of  the 
Court  with  thirty  retainers  in  his  pocket  and  fol 
lowed  by  a  crowd  of  solicitors  engaged  in  a  race 
of  diligence  to  see  who  should  reach  his  chambers 
first.  Who  would  not  have  given  a  year  of  his 
life  to  have  heard  Webster  pleading  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  little 
college  in  the  hills,  where  his  intellectual  life 
began,  and  throwing  successfully  round  it  the 
shield  of  that  most  beneficent  of  all  constitutional 
provisions,  that  no  State  shall  pass  any  law  im 
pairing  the  obligation  of  contracts? 

I  started  in  life  with  a  belief  that  our  profession 
in  its  highest  walks  afforded  the  most  noble  em 
ployment  in  which  any  man  could  engage,  and  I 
am  of  the  same  opinion  still.  Until  I  became  an 
Ambassador  and  entered  the  terra  incognita  of 
diplomacy  I  believed  a  man  could  be  of  greater 
service  to  his  country  and  his  race  in  the  foremost 
ranks  of  the  Bar  than  anywhere  else ;  and  I  think 
so  still.  To  be  a  priest,  and  possibly  a  high  priest, 
in  the  temple  of  justice,  to  serve  at  her  altar  and 
aid  in  her  administration,  to  maintain  and  defend 

261 


BENCH   AND   BAB   OF   ENGLAND 

those  inalienable  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  prop 
erty  upon  which  the  safety  of  society  depends,  to 
succor  the  oppressed  and  to  defend  the  innocent, 
to  maintain  Constitutional  rights  against  all  viola 
tions,  whether  by  the  Executive,  by  the  Legisla 
ture,  by  the  resistless  power  of  the  Press,  or, 
worst  of  all,  by  the  ruthless  rapacity  of  an  un 
bridled  majority,  to  rescue  the  scapegoat  and 
restore  him  to  his  proper  place  in  the  world  —  all 
this  seemed  to  me  to  furnish  a  field  worthy  of  any 
man's  ambition. 

The  relations  between  the  Bench  and  the  Bar 
of  England  and  those  of  the  United  States  are  far 
more  intimate  and  enduring  than  I  think  even  you 
can  suppose.  I  wish  you  could  enter  any  of  our 
Courts  in  America  anywhere  between  Boston  and 
San  Francisco.  You  would  find  yourself  on  famil 
iar  ground  and  perfectly  at  home  —  the  same  law, 
the  same  questions,  the  same  mode  of  dealing  with 
them.  You  would  find  always  and  everywhere  the 
same  loyalty  on  the  part  of  the  Bar  to  the  Bench 
and  on  the  part  of  the  Bench  to  the  Bar.  Some 
things  you  would  miss.  You  would  miss,  I  think, 
some  of  that  dignity,  some  of  that  picturesque- 
ness,  at  least,  which  prevails  in  your  own  tribu 
nals.  Our  barristers  appear  in  plain  clothes  in 
Court.  The  Judges  —  some  of  them  —  wear 
gowns,  but  never  a  wig.  I  think  it  would  be  a 
very  rash  man  that  would  propose  that  bold  ex 
periment  to  our  democracy.  If  the  Lord  Chancel 
lor  had  wished  that  our  primitive  and  unsophisti 
cated  people  should  adopt  that  relic  of  antiquity 

262 


BENCH    AND    BAR    OF   ENGLAND 

and  grandeur,  he  should  not  have  allowed  his  pre 
decessors  in  his  great  office  to  tell  such  fearful 
stories  about  each  other  in  respect  to  that  article 
of  apparel.  We  have  read  the  story  of  Lord 
Campbell,  as  given  in  his  diary  annotated  by  his 
daughter,  as  to  what  became  of  Lord  Erskine's 
full-bottomed  wig  when  he  ceased  to  be  Lord 
Chancellor  —  that  it  was  purchased  and  exported 
to  the  coast  of  Guinea  in  order  that  it  might 
make  an  African  warrior  more  formidable  to  his 
enemies  on  the  field  of  battle.  We  have  a  great 
prejudice  against  anything  that  savors  of  over 
awing  the  Court,  overawing  the  jury;  and  if  any 
such  terrors  are  to  be  connected  with  that  instru 
ment  our  pure  democracy  will  never  adopt  it. 

Now,  gentlemen,  these  ancient  Inns  of  Court, 
and,  above  all,  Westminster  Hall,  with  its  far 
more  ancient  and  historic  associations,  which  have 
been  the  nurseries  and  the  home  of  the  Common 
Law  for  ages,  are  very  near  and  dear  to  my  coun 
trymen,  and  especially  to  my  brethren  of  the  Bar 
in  America.  There  is  nothing  dearer  to  them. 
They  flock  to  Westminster  Hall  immediately  on 
their  arrival  here ;  and  they  wish  —  I  wish  for 
them  —  to  acknowledge  that  infinite  debt  of  grati 
tude  that  we  owe,  that  the  whole  world  owes,  to 
the  Bench  and  Bar  of  England,  who  have  been 
working  out  with  untiring  patience  through  whole 
centuries  the  principles  of  the  common  law  which 
underlie  alike  the  liberties  of  England  and  of 
America.  It  was  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  England 
in  the  Inns  of  Court  and  in  the  Courts  in  West- 

263 


BENCH   AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

minster  Hall,  and  more  lately  in  the  Koyal  Courts 
of  Justice,  that  established  those  fundamental, 
those  absolute  principles  that  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  our  common  liberties.  What  are  they?  That 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  power,  that 
King,  lords,  and  commons,  President,  congress, 
and  people,  are  alike  subject  to  the  law ;  that  be 
fore  its  supreme  majesty  all  men  are  equal ;  that 
no  man  can  be  punished  or  deprived  of  his  dearest 
or  any  of  his  rights  except  by  the  edict  of  the  law 
pronounced  by  independent  tribunals,  who  are 
themselves  subject  to  the  law;  that  every  man's 
house  is  his  castle,  and  though  the  winds  and  the 
storms  may  enter  it,  the  King  and  the  President 
cannot ;  in  other  words,  and  the  sublime  words  of 
the  great  Sidney,  that  ours,  on  both  sides  of  the 
water,  is  "  a  government  of  laws  and  not  of  men. '  ' 
Indeed,  we  claim  these  venerable  structures  as  in 
large  part  our  own.  I  believe  that  William  Eufus 
held  his  first  Court  in  Westminster  Hall  at  Whit 
suntide,  1099.  Well,  when  John  Winthrop,  of 
the  Inner  Temple,  went  over  to  America  to  found 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  in  1629,  those  Courts, 
that  great  Hall,  these  Inns  of  Court  had  been  as 
much  ours  as  yours  for  hundreds  of  years;  so 
that  you  see  we  claim  a  very  great  interest,  a 
personal  and  immediate,  and  direct  right  in  all 
that  has  contributed  to  the  growth  and  develop 
ment  of  the  law  in  England.  You  had  been  in 
these  very  Inns  of  Court,  studying  and  teaching 
the  law,  for  at  least  a  century  before  Columbus 
made  his  great  discovery,  which  opened  the  dawn 

264 


BENCH    AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

of  a  new  creation  and  put  an  end  to  the  dark  ages. 
In  Magna  Charta  and  the  Petition  of  Eight  our 
colonies  carried  with  them  the  germs  of  what  has 
grown  to  be  American  law  and  American  liberty. 
At  the  beginning  there  were  no  lawyers  in  Amer 
ica.  They  had  an  idea  of  a  Utopia  which  could 
be  carried  on  successfully  by  the  help  of  the 
clergy,  without  them.  But  we  have  made  great 
progress  since  then,  and  our  last  census  shows  in 
America  more  than  100,000  lawyers.  I  can  give 
the  exact  number  — 104,700,  of  whom  1,010  are 
women.  Now,  I  am  afraid  the  Lord  Chancellor, 
who  is  so  conservative,  would  hesitate  a  little  at 
the  admission  to  the  Bar  of  1,010  women;  but  I 
assure  him  that  if  he  will  go  over  there  and  hold 
a  Court  in  which  they  may  be  heard,  and  if  you, 
gentlemen  of  the  Bar,  will  go  over  there,  and  take 
retainers  with  them  or  against  them,  you  will  be 
so  fascinated  that  you  will  embrace  every  oppor 
tunity  afterwards  of  repeating  the  experiment. 

Now,  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
the  Lord  Chancellor  seems  to  have  a  little  doubt 
about,  our  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  he  has  no  doubt  about,  are  only  the  natural 
sequence  of  Magna  Charta  and  the  Petition  of 
Eight.  Our  Eevolution  only  followed  suit  after 
your  Eevolution  of  a  hundred  years  before.  We 
stood  for  the  same  principles,  we  fought  the  same 
fight,  we  gained  the  same  victory.  Our  Jefferson 
and  Franklin  and  their  associates  in  declaring 
independence,  our  Washington  and  Hamilton  and 
their  associates  in  organizing  the  Government  of 

265 


BENCH    AND   BAB   OF   ENGLAND 

the  United  States  and  setting  its  wheels  in  motion, 
were  only  doing  for  us  what  Somers  and  his  great 
associates  had  done  for  you  in  1688.  Now  you 
will  not  be  surprised  that  in  these  fateful  events, 
which  meant  so  much  for  the  welfare  of  the 
world,  and  in  which  the  lawyers  took  a  very  great 
part,  these  Inns  of  Court  contributed  their  quota; 
and  that  there  were  five  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  who  had  been  bred 
to  the  law  in  the  Middle  Temple,  and  three  of  the 
framers  and  signers  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  who  had  been  bred  in  the  same  Inn, 
and  one  of  them  was  afterwards  nominated  by 
President  Washington  as  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States.  So  you  may  well  imagine  with 
what  delight  I  was  informed  a  day  or  two  ago  that 
I  had  been  made  a  Bencher  of  the  great  American 
Inn,  the  Middle  Temple.  I  do  not  think  any  Amer 
ican  lawyer  has  ever  had  such  a  success  as  that. 
They  may  have  won  more  cases,  they  may  have 
got  more  fees,  but  they  never  have  been  made 
Benchers  of  any  of  the  Inns  of  Court.  In  fact, 
this  incident,  so  touching  to  my  heart,  has  almost 
changed  my  mind.  I  have  a  great  mind  not  to 
go  back  to  America,  but  to  remain  here  and  re 
sume  the  practice  of  the  law  where  those  five 
signers  of  the  Declaration  and  those  three  sign 
ers  of  the  Constitution  left  off  125  years  ago. 
I  should  like  to  cross  swords  and  join  conclusions 
with  some  of  these  distinguished  Benchers  of  the 
four  Inns  of  Court  who  grace  these  tables  to 
night.  I  do  not  know  what  my  brethren  of  the 

266 


BENCH   AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

Bar  at  home  would  say,  but  I  think  they  would 
say, '  '  If  you  have  achieved  such  a  success  as  that 
make  the  most  and  the  best  of  it  at  once." 

Well,  there  is  no  difference  between  American 
law  and  liberty  and  English  law  and  liberty.  I 
should  like  to  mention  two  responsibilities  which 
have  been  thrown  upon  the  Bench  and  the  Bar 
in  America  in  a  greater  degree  than  here.  One 
is  that  on  the  Bar  the  whole  burden  of  legislation 
from  the  beginning  has  been  thrown.  In  a  coun 
try  like  ours,  where  the  executive  and  the  legisla 
tive  departments  are  kept  asunder  by  impassable 
constitutional  barriers,  it  is  justly  considered,  and 
has  always  been  considered,  that,  for  making  and 
amending  and  expanding  the  law,  the  men  best 
qualified  are  those  who  are  already  skilled  in  the 
law,  and  so  from  the  beginning  the  majority  of 
lawyers  in  Congress  and  in  each  one  of  the  Legis 
latures  of  our  forty-five  States  has  been  uni 
formly  maintained.  . 

And  then  upon  the  Bench  there  has  been  thrown 
another  very  great  responsibility,  growing  out  of 
our  peculiar  form  of  government,  exercised  by  all 
the  Judges  and  culminating  in  the  unique  power 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  to  which  the  Lord  Chan 
cellor  has  referred,  to  set  aside,  to  declare  null 
and  void,  any  Act  of  any  Legislature  or  of  Con 
gress  itself  which  comes  in  conflict  with  the  pro 
visions  of  the  Constitution.  I  believe  it  has  been 
exercised  by  that  Court  about  twenty-four  times 
in  the  case  of  Acts  of  Congress,  and  something 
like  two  hundred  times  in  the  case  of  State  enact- 

267 


BENCH   AND   BAR   OF   ENGLAND 

ments,  and  it  has  been  the  balance  wheel  upon 
which  our  complicated  and  dual  system  of  gov 
ernment  has  turned.  There  we  have  over  every 
foot  of  the  soil  of  our  great  territory  and  over 
every  living  being  within  it  two  distinct  and  in 
dependent  Governments,  each  supreme  and  abso 
lute  in  its  own  sphere  and  working  in  absolute 
harmony  because  of  this  harmonizing  function  of 
our  great  tribunal. 

I  said  a  little  while  ago  that  perhaps  you  ex 
celled  us  in  your  tribunals  in  dignity,  in  the  con 
trol  which  the  Court  exercises,  and  ought  to  exer 
cise,  over  the  Bar.  It  is  all  illustrated  by  a  single 
difference  of  phraseology.  In  America  we  say 
that  the  counsel  try  the  case  and  that  the  Judge 
hears  and  decides;  but,  if  I  understand  your 
common  parlance  here,  the  Judge  tries  the  case 
and  the  counsel  hear  and  obey.  That  is  where 
we  have  got  a  good  deal  to  learn  from  you.  It 
is  exactly  as  it  should  be.  But  do  not  believe  for 
a  moment  that  there  is  any  abdication  on  the  part 
of  our  tribunals,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
of  the  functions  and  authority  that  belong  to  the 
judicial  office.  If  anybody  should  go  over  there 
and  try  it  on  he  would  find  that  he  was  very  much 
mistaken  indeed.  There  is  an  example  set  by  that 
august  tribunal  to  which  I  have  referred.  No 
Court  could  be  looked  up  to  with  so  much  rever 
ence  ;  no  Court,  I  think,  receives  the  homage  and 
deference,  not  only  of  the  community,  but  of  the 
Bar,  in  such  a  signal  way  as  that;  and  the  in 
fluence  of  its  example  is  widely  extended,  and 

268 


BENCH    AND   BAE   OF   ENGLAND 

other  tribunals  follow  as  they  may.  Now,  gentle 
men,  I  must  not  occupy  any  more  of  your  time. 
I  cannot  express  the  overflowing  feelings  that 
are  welling  up  from  my  heart  at  this  moment 
when  I  find  myself  thus  honored  by  the  most 
illustrious  men  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  in  Eng 
land,  and  that  such  words  of  affection  for  me 
should  have  been  spoken  on  every  side.  I  can 
only  thank  you  again  and  again.  Let  me  tell  you 
of  what  one  of  my  predecessors  said  —  I  think 
many  of  you  knew  him  —  himself  a  very  great 
lawyer,  Mr.  Phelps.  Before  I  left  America  to 
come  and  take  up  my  office  here  he  called  upon 
me  and  he  said,  "  Mr.  Choate,  the  best  nights  that 
you  will  have  in  England  are  those  that  you  will 
pass  with  the  Bench  and  the  Bar."  "  The  law 
yers,  "  said  he,  "  are  the  best  company  in  Eng 
land,  and  I  advise  you  to  lose  no  opportunity  of 
cultivating  their  friendship.  You  certainly  will 
have  your  reward.'!  My  Lord  Chancellor  and 
gentlemen,  I  have  faithfully  followed  his  advice 
and  I  have  my  reward  to-night.  No  one  ever  had 
one  more  rich  and  generous.  I  shall  carry  the 
memory  of  it  with  me  as  long  as  I  live,  and  I  think 
I  shall  be  attracted  by  the  love  of  my  professional 
brethren  to  visit  these  shores  as  often  as  I  can. 


FAREWELL 


FAREWELL 

Address  at  the  Farewell  Banquet  given  to  Mr.  Choate,  by  the  Lord 
Mayor  at  the  Mansion  House  May  5th,  1905. 

MY  Lord  Mayor,  Mr.  Balfour,  my  Lords  and 
Gentlemen, — Certainly  this  is  the  crowning 
hour  of  my  life.  At  any  rate,  it  is  positively  my 
last  farewell  benefit  upon  the  English  stage.  To 
be  received  and  feted  by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Lon 
don,  who  holds  the  most  unique  and  picturesque 
office  in  the  kingdom,  who  bears  upon  his  breast 
the  badge  which  his  predecessors  in  direct  suc 
cession  have  worn  for  more  than  seven  hundred 
years,  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  wonderful 
City,  the  centre  of  the  world's  commerce  and  the 
seat  of  the  British  Empire;  to  have  my  health 
proposed  and  my  obituary  pronounced  by  the 
Prime  Minister,  who  bears  upon  his  ample  shoul 
ders  all  of  this  great  globe  which  the  British 
drum-beat  encircles,  supported  as  he  is  too  by 
such  a  number  of  possible  Prime  Ministers  of  the 
future,  all  ready  and  willing  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  with  consummate  self-sacrifice,  to  relieve 
him  of  this  great  portion  of  his  duty ;  to  see  pres 
ent  also  so  many  members  of  that  august  but 
occult  body,  the  Cabinet,  who  labor  in  secret,  but 
to-night  for  my  sake  have  come  out  into  the  full 
glare  of  the  bright  electric  light;  to  be  honored 

273 


FAEEWELL 

by  the  presence  of  the  Foreign  Secretary  with 
whom  I  have  had  such  delightful  intercourse, 
Lord  Lansdowne,  from  whom  no  secrets  are  hid; 
and  then  to  find  that  so  many  of  the  famous  men 
of  England  of  all  professions,  parties,  and  opin 
ions  have  come  here  to-night  as  my  friends  —  I 
could  look  almost  every  man  in  this  company  in 
the  face  and  claim  him  almost  as  an  old  friend  — 
I  do  not  dare  trust  myself  to  speak  at  all  about 
it.  I  can  only  thank  the  Lord  Mayor  for  his 
magnificent  hospitality,  and  you,  all  my  fellow- 
guests  here,  for  your  inspiring  presence.  I  am 
sure  that  you  will  indulge  me,  before  I  say  the 
fatal  word  "  Farewell,"  in  a  few  words  in  re 
sponse  to  what  has  been  so  eloquently  said 
to  you  by  the  Prime  Minister.  Altogether  too 
much  credit  has  been  attributed  to  me  for  the 
happy,  the  delightful  relations  that  now  exist  be 
tween  our  two  countries.  If  I  have  contributed  in 
the  least  degree  to  maintain  and  preserve  what 
I  found  already  existing,  the  last  six  years  will 
be  the  proudest  of  my  life. 

But,  gentlemen,  the  real  credit  of  this  happy 
state  of  things  belongs  not  to  me  or  to  any  Am 
bassador,  but  it  belongs  to  the  two  men  who  are 
responsible,  and  have  now  for  some  years  been 
responsible,  for  the  conduct  of  our  relations,  no 
longer  foreign  relations  —  I  mean  Lord  Lans 
downe  and  Mr.  Hay.  The  diplomatist  who  should 
try  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  Lord  Lansdowne  would 
be  a  curious  crank  indeed ;  because  he  would  have 
So  pick  it  all  himself;  Lord  Lansdowne  would  be 

274 


FAREWELL 

no  party  to  it.  And,  happily,  so  it  is  with  Mr. 
Hay.  Never  were  two  statesmen  more  happily 
matched,  for  the  noble  game  that  is  entrusted  to 
them.  When  the  noble  marquis  escapes  from  the 
ennui  of  Downing  street  and  the  tiresome  visits 
of  Ambassadors,  to  his  beloved  retreat  in  the 
extreme  southwest  of  Ireland,  he  finds  himself  in 
the  next  parish  to  the  United  States,  with  nothing 
between  us  and  him  but  fresh  air  and  salt  water. 
And  I  think  I  have  noticed  that  he  catches  and 
reflects  the  breezy  influences  of  that  close  neigh 
borhood.  At  any  rate,  I  have  always  found  that 
my  best  time  for  dealing  with  him  on  American 
questions  was  when  he  returned  refreshed  and 
invigorated  from  that  near  approach  to  the  West 
ern  World.  Always,  the  policy  of  the  Foreign 
Office,  so  far  as  I  have  observed  it,  has  been  one  of 
fairness,  frankness,  justice  and  simple  truth,  and 
I  hope  that  he  has  found  our  State  Department 
the  same. 

No  single  man  can  claim  exclusive  credit  in  this 
happy  result.  You  all  know  how  constant,  how 
unceasing  your  gracious  Sovereigns  and  our  high- 
minded  Presidents  have  always  been  in  the  same 
direction.  I  wish  to  say  here  to-night  that  I  have 
never  been  called  into  the  presence  of  his  Majesty 
the  King  or  of  his  illustrious  mother  that  I  did 
not  find  them  full  of  expressions  of  sympathy  and 
friendship  for  the  country  that  I  represent.  I 
well  remember  the  last  interview  that  it  was  my 
honor  to  have  with  your  late  illustrious  Queen. 
It  was  immediately  after  a  frightful  conflagration 

275 


FAEEWELL 

had  occurred  in  America,  where  many  lives  were 
lost.  She  knew  all  about  it,  she  had  studied  all 
its  details,  and  was  as  full  of  sympathy  and  sor 
row  as  if  the  disaster  had  occurred  in  her  own 
dominions.  And  as  for  his  Majesty,  the  King, 
why,  his  instinct  for  peace  is  so  unceasing,  his 
genius  for  conciliation  so  perfect,  as  he  has  been 
showing  to  the  world  in  this  very  last  week,  that 
it  will  be  impossible  hereafter  as  long  as  he  lives 
for  any  of  the  other  nations  to  quarrel  with  his 
own  people. 

I  have  been  asked  a  thousand  times  in  the  last 
three  months,  "  Why  do  you  go?  '  "  Are  you 
not  sorry  to  leave  England!  Are  you  really 
glad  to  go  home?  "  Well,  in  truth,  my  mind 
and  heart  are  torn  asunder  by  conflicting  emo 
tions.  In  the  first  place,  on  the  one  hand,  I  will 
tell  you  a  great  secret.  I  am  really  suffering  from 
homesickness.  Not  that  I  love  England  less,  but 
that  I  love  America  more,  and  what  Englishman 
will  quarrel  with  me  for  that?  There  is  no  place 
like  home,  be  it  ever  so  homely,  or,  as  the  old 
Welsh  adage  has  it,  "  east  and  west,  hame  is 
best."  My  friends  on  this  side  of  the  water  are 
multiplying  every  day  in  numbers  and  increasing 
in  the  ardor  of  their  affections.  I  am  sorry  to 
say  that  the  great  host  of  my  friends  on  the  other 
side  are  as  rapidly  'diminishing  and  dwindling 
away.  "  Part  of  the  host  have  crossed  the  flood, 
and  part  are  crossing  now,"  and  I  have  a  great 
yearning  to  be  with  the  waning  number.  And 
then,  on  the  other  hand,  to  make  a  clean  breast  of 

276 


FAEEWELL 

it  in  this  family  party,  I  am  running  a  great  risk, 
if  I  stay  here  much  longer,  of  contracting  a  much 
more  serious  disease  than  homesickness  —  I  mean 
Anglomania,  which  many  of  my  countrymen  re 
gard  as  more  dangerous  and  fatal  than  even 
cerebro-spinal  meningitis.  To  a  young  man  it  is 
absolutely  fatal,  but  to  one  who  has  well-nigh 
exhausted  his  future,  the  consequences  are  not 
quite  so  serious.  It  was  wisely  said  by  one  of  the 
Presidents  of  the  United  States  that  he  would 
not  trust  a  Minister  or  an  Ambassador  in  Eng 
land  more  than  four  years,  because  those  English 
would  be  sure  to  spoil  him,  and  you  have  done 
your  best  to  spoil  me  —  not  as  the  children  of 
Israel  spoiled  the  Egyptians,  by  taking  from  them 
all  they  could  lay  their  hands  upon,  but  by  heap 
ing  on  my  undeserving  head  all  the  honors  and 
compliments  and  benefits  that  you  can  lay  your 
hands  upon.  And  so  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  I 
am  more  glad  or  more  sorry,  or  on  which  side  of 
the  water  I  shall  leave  or  have  the  largest  half 
of  my  heart.  Mr.  Balfour  has  spoken  of  the  ad 
vantages  that  I  have  had  in  studying  the  English 
people,  and  he  wondered  what  sort  of  impression 
I  should  carry  home.  Well,  I  shall  carry,  in  the 
first  place,  the  most  delightful  personal  memo 
ries  —  memories  of  exalting  and  enduring  friend 
ships  formed,  of  many  happy  homes  visited,  of 
boundless  hospitality  enjoyed. 

But  I  shall  carry  away  something  better  than 
that.  I  shall  carry  away  the  highest  appreciation 
of  those  great  traits  and  qualities  which  make  and 

277 


FAEEWELL 

mark  your  national  life  —  the  reign  of  law  abso 
lutely  sovereign  and  supreme  in  all  parts  of  the 
land ;  individual  liberty  carried  to  its  highest  per 
fection,  perfected  by  law  and  subject  to  it;  that 
splendid  and  burning  patriotism  which  inspires 
your  young  men  when  their  country  calls  to  risk 
life  and  all  they  hold  dear  for  her  sake.  I  recall 
that  lofty  stanza  of  Emerson  applied  to  our  young 
men  when  they  responded  to  a  similar  call :  - 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man ; 
When  duty  whispers  low  — '  Thou  must  ' 
The  youth  replies,  '  I  can!  '  " 

I  shall  carry  with  me  the  recollection  of  that  splen 
did  instinct  for  public  life  which  animates  and 
pervades  those  classes  here  from  whom  public 
duty  is  expected,  and  the  absolute  purity  of  your 
public  life  which  is  the  necessary  result.  There 
are  so  many  other  things  that  I  witnessed  here. 
I  wish  I  could  spend  time  in  recalling  more  of 
them. 

One  thing  that  has  struck  me  from  first  to  last 
here  in  England  is  the  loyal  devotion  of  all  the 
people  to  the  integrity  of  the  Empire,  conforming, 
as  it  does,  exactly  to  our  fundamental  idea  of 
American  life  that  everything  must  be  sacrificed, 
everything  else  must  be  sacrificed,  if  necessary, 
to  maintain  the  sovereignty  and  integrity  of  the 
Eepublic.  I  came  here  believing  that  you  were  a 
cold  and  phlegmatic  people,  not  capable  of  those 

278 


FAEEWELL 

mercurial  outbursts  of  emotion  which  sometimes 
carry  away  my  own  countrymen  and  those  of 
other  nations.  But  I  have  lived  here  long  enough 
to  change  my  mind  and  to  know  you  better.  I 
have  seen  you,  as  Mr.  Balfour  has  said,  in  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  peace  and  war,  under  the 
strain  of  a  tremendous  anxiety  and  apprehensions 
of  disaster,  and  in  all  the  exultation  of  victory. 
I  found  that  under  your  cool  exterior,  your  serene 
repose  of  manner,  the  hall-mark  of  the  English 
gentleman,  which  other  nations  may  well  envy, 
you  carry  hearts  as  warm  as  ever  inspired  the 
enthusiasm  of  any  people.  I  was  brought  up  to 
believe  that  work,  hard  work,  was  the  end  and 
aim  of  life  —  that  that  was  what  we  were  placed 
here  for.  But  on  contemplating  your  best  exam 
ples  I  have  learnt  that  work  is  only  a  means  to  a 
higher  end,  to  a  more  rational  life,  to  the  develop 
ment  of  our  best  traits  and  powers  for  the  benefit 
of  those  around  us,, and  for  getting  and  giving  as 
much  happiness  as  the  lot  of  humanity  admits. 

Six  years  ago  I  came  among  you  an  absolute 
stranger  upon  a  mission  wholly  new  to  me,  but 
from  the  moment  I  landed  I  was  no  longer  a 
stranger.  All  doors  were  open  to  me,  endless 
hospitality  was  showered  upon  me,  and  I  learnt 
that  I  had  really  some  useful  work  to  do  here.  In 
these  days  of  cables  and  wireless  communications, 
when  the  Foreign  Office  of  each  nation  is  brought 
into  actual  presence  in  the  capital  of  every  other, 
an  American  Ambassador  who  confined  himself  to 
official  duties  would  have  very  little  work  to  do. 

279 


FAEEWELL 

I  was  instructed  by  President  McKinley  to  en 
deavor  to  promote  the  welfare  of  both  countries 
by  cultivating  the  most  friendly  relations  between 
them ;  and  in  obedience  to  that  instruction  I  have 
gone  to  and  fro  among  the  English  people,  coming 
in  close  contact  with  them,  studying  them  at  near 
range  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  distinc 
tions  and  differences,  if  any,  that  exist  between 
us.  I  have  endeavored  to  make  them  better  ac 
quainted  with  my  own  country,  its  history,  its 
institutions,  its  great  names,  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  them  that  really  the  difference  between 
an  Englishman  and  an  American  is  only  skin  deep, 
that  under  different  historical  forms  we  pursue 
with  equal  success  the  same  great  objects  of  lib 
erty,  of  justice,  of  the  public  welfare,  and  that  our 
interests  are  so  inextricably  interwoven  that  we 
would  not,  if  we  could,  and  could  not  if  we  would, 
escape  the  necessity  of  an  abiding  and  perpetual 
friendship.  I  have  no  doubt  now,  and  can  have 
no  doubt,  about  the  permanence  of  the  peace  which 
now  exists  between  us.  War  between  these  two 
great  nations  would  be  an  inexplicable  impossi 
bility.  We  have  got  along  without  it  for  the  last 
ninety  years ;  we  shall  get  along  perfectly  well 
without  it  for  the  next  nine  hundred  years  —  ab 
solutely  so. 

The  gravest  questions  have  arisen  during  this 
protracted  period  of  peace,  questions  which  other 
nations  might  have  made  causes  for  war,  and  we 
have  settled  them  all  without  a  single  exception 
by  resort  to  the  peaceful  mode  of  arbitration,  to 

280 


FAEEWELL 

the  principle  of  which  Senate  and  people  are  all 
equally  committed.  You  must  not  be  troubled  by 
hearing  of  any  domestic  discussion  as  to  how  this 
happy  result  of  leaving  every  question  that  may 
arise  between  us  to  final  settlement  by  arbitration 
can  best  be  brought  about.  In  the  practical  ap 
plication  of  the  principle  we  have  never  yet  failed 
in  the  past,  and  we  shall  never  fail  in  the  future. 
Of  course,  as  you  all  know,  there  are  questions 
which  are  not  capable  of  arbitration,  but  no  such 
questions  are  possible,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to  arise 
between  your  nation  and  ours.  Our  good  under 
standing  is  now  complete  and  perfect;  our  in 
terests  are  more  interwoven  than  ever  before; 
our  knowledge  of  each  other  is  greater  and  closer 
than  ever  before,  and  every  year  and  every  day 
it  is  growing  closer.  It  means  very  much  that 
our  multitudinous  visits  to  your  shores  have  been 
responded  to  in  a  single  season  by  return  visits 
of  such  men  as  tjie  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
the  Bishops  of  Hereford  and  Eipon,  Lord  Dart 
mouth,  Mr.  Bryce  and  Mr.  Morley;  and,  if  I  am 
rightly  informed  —  if  I  am  not  mistaken  —  in  the 
event  of  any  change  of  Government  the  retiring 
Ministers  would  follow  their  example,  and  they 
would  find  in  the  capacious  bosom  of  our  broad 
Republic  the  rest  for  which  they  were  seeking 
and  the  new  life  and  inspiration  which  would 
bring  them  home  for  the  next  rebound.  And  I 
really  believe  that,  if  you  follow  the  advice  of 
his  Grace  and  these  returned  statesmen,  a  visit 
to  America  might  be  made  hereafter  an  absolute 

281 


FAEEWELL 

qualification  in  the  education  of  a  British  states 
man. 

Our  literature  on  both  sides  is  filled  and  sat 
urated  with  our  good  understanding.  The  most 
recent  eminent  historian  of  Great  Britain  ex 
hausts  the  power  of  eulogy  in  dwelling  upon  the 
merits  of  those  arch  Bepublicans,  George  Wash 
ington  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  even  of  Ben 
jamin  Franklin,  who  snatched  the  lightning  from 
the  clouds  and  the  sceptre  from  tyrants.  And  it 
has  also  been  discovered  what  we  always  knew  - 
that  my  predecessor,  Mr.  Adams,  who  stood  here 
like  a  rock  for  the  interests  of  his  country  in  days 
most  perilous  to  our  peace,  has  really  proved  to 
be  in  the  end  the  best  friend  of  both  countries,  as 
Mr.  Herbert  Paul,  in  his  last  volume,  for  which 
I  thank  him,  declares  him  to  have  been.  He  says 
that  at  Geneva  he  saved  the  arbitration  from  col 
lapse  and  the  two  nations  from  falling  apart,  and 
he  boldly  suggests  that  he  is  entitled  to  have  a 
monument  at  Westminster  as  well  as  at  Washing 
ton.  I  thank  him  for  that.  Then,  on  the  other 
side  you  have  heard  a  good  deal,  and  I  have  heard 
a  good  deal,  of  the  rancor  and  bitterness  that  had 
grown  into  the  American  school-books,  especially 
the  school  histories,  bringing  down  to  present 
times  the  hard  feelings  of  our  former  conflicts; 
but  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith,  whose  name  you  will  all 
respect  as  an  historian,  in  his  very  recent  address 
before  the  American  Historical  Association,  de 
clared  that,  having  heard  a  great  deal  about  this 
vice  in  the  school  histories  in  use  in  America,  he 

282 


FAEEWELL 

made  a  collection  of  our  school  books  of  the  pres 
ent  day  and  examined  them,  and  he  expresses  the 
positive  belief  that  there  is  very  little  in  them 
which  could  give  offense  to  any  reasonable  Eng 
lishman. 

Then  you  heard  what  my  successor,  Mr.  White- 
law  Eeid,  who  will  soon  be  with  you,  said  recently 
in  New  York.  Let  me  read  it  to  you,  for  it  is  a 
very  good  introduction  of  him  to  this  audience. 
He  said  that  international  good  will  "  after  all 
is  no  longer  a  subject  of  much  concern.  We  do 
not  continue  to  worry  over  an  object  of  national 
or  international  desire  when  it  has  already  been 
attained.  We  are  content  to  enjoy  it."  The  good 
will  between  your  country  and  this  already  exists. 
Never  at  any  stage  of  our  history  has  it  been  so 
generally  taken  as  a  matter  of  course  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  And  let  me  say  here  that 
you  will  find  my  successor  —  you  will  recognize 
him  as  a  life-long  advocate  of  friendly  relations 
between  England  and  our  own  country.  He  will 
come  among  you  as  an  old  friend.  You  have  re 
ceived  him  before  on  several  most  distinguished 
and  brilliant  missions.  His  experience  and 
diplomacy,  his  knowledge  of  affairs,  his  versatil 
ity  are  well  known,  and  I  am  sure  that  you  will 
give  him  a  good  old-fashioned,  hearty  British 
welcome. 

Now,  serene  and  secure  as  our  peace  is,  I  am 
not  so  foolish  as  to  indulge  the  hope  that  it  will 
never  be  disturbed.  Untoward  events  will  hap 
pen,  unfortunate  things  will  be  said,  something 

283 


FAEEWELL 

or  other  will  happen  that  will  for  the  moment 
disturb  the  serenity  of  our  peaceful  relations. 
And  how  are  these  threats  of  disaster  to  be 
avoided!  Standing  here  by  the  side  of  your  pred 
ecessor,  eight  years  ago,  Lord  Salisbury  said  that 
there  was  nothing  in  the  traditions  of  Govern 
ment,  nothing  in  the  tendencies  of  official  life, 
which  was  any  danger,  if  any  existed,  to  good  re 
lations.  "  Take  care,"  he  said,  "  of  the  unofficial 
people,  and  I  will  see  that  the  official  people  never 
make  any  war ;  ' '  and  he  went  on  to  speak  of  that 
public  opinion  which  dominated  Governments 
then  and  which  has  since  grown  to  dominate  them 
still  more.  If  any  such  unhappy  occurrences  do 
arise,  we  are  to  be  tided  over  them  by  public 
opinion  and  by  that  great  exponent  of  public 
opinion  and  guide  of  the  public  conscience  —  a 
high-minded  and  patriotic  Press  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic.  If  the  Press  does  its  best  to  mini 
mize  such  untoward  events  and  to  keep  the  people 
cool  till  sober  second  thoughts  come  we  shall 
all  be  glad;  but  if  they  stir  up  the  embers  and 
fan  the  flames  and  pile  on  the  fuel,  they  may  get 
up  a  conflagration  which  will  tax  all  the  inter 
national  powers  of  the  fire  brigade  commanded  by 
Lord  Lansdowne  and  Mr.  Hay  to  extinguish. 

And  now  why  waste  a  night  in  words  when  I 
only  came  here  to  say  a  single  word?  I  bid  you, 
and  through  you  the  people  of  England,  farewell 
with  infinite  regret,  carrying  with  me  the  most 
precious  memories  and  the  best  opinions  and  a 
mind  enlarged  and  improved  by  my  six  years 

284 


FAEEWELL 

here,  having  learned  to  take  a  broader  and  a  hap 
pier  view  of  our  relations  and  the  possibilities  of 
our  two  peoples  than  I  had  before ;  and  I  end  as 
I  began,  by  thanking  the  Lord  Mayor  for  his 
boundless  hospitality  and  for  giving  us  this  splen 
did  occasion  for  the  interchange  of  friendly  senti 
ments  between  two  great  and  friendly  peoples. 


285 


JOHN  HARVARD 


JOHN  HARVARD 

Address  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Harvard  Memorial  Window  presented 
by  Mr.  Choate  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  St.  Saviour's  Church 
(Southwark  Cathedral},  May  23d,  1905. 

ll/T  Y  Lord  Bishop,  I  may  be  permitted  to  state  in 
-L»J-  a  few  words  my  object  and  purpose  in  pre 
senting  the  window  to  the  Cathedral.  I  desired  to 
signalize  my  long  residence  in  London  by  an  ap 
propriate  gift  which  should  be  in  itself  emblem 
atical  of  the  deepseated  and  abiding  relations  of 
friendship  which  happily  unite  our  two  countries. 
As  a  loyal  son  of  Harvard,  I  thought  that  nothing 
could  be  more  fitting  than  a  permanent  memorial 
here  of  the  principal  founder  of  Harvard  Univer 
sity.  John  Harvard  was  born  in  this  ancient 
borough,  close  by  the  end  of  London  Bridge,  and 
baptized  in  this  venerable  church  in  1607,  almost 
three  centuries  ago.  Educated  at  Emmanuel  Col 
lege  in  Cambridge,  where  he  spent  eight  years, 
during  at  least  four  of  which  Milton  was  at 
Christ's,  he  and  Milton  received  substantially  the 
same  nurture  and  discipline,  and  must  often  have 
been  thrown  together.  At  any  rate,  he  imbibed 
something  of  the  same  spirit  as  Milton,  for  his 
contemporaries  speak  of  him  as  a  scholar  and 
pious  in  his  life.  Seeking  larger  freedom  of 
thought  than  could  be  found  in  the  London  of  that 

289 


JOHN  HARVARD 

day,  he  made  his  way  to  Massachusetts,  and  there, 
within  two  years  of  his  arrival,  he  died,  prema 
turely,  as  it  then  seemed,  but  in  the  fulness  and 
perfection  of  time,  as  is  now  manifest;  for,  find 
ing  the  infant  colony  struggling  without  means  to 
establish  a  college  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  first 
decade  of  its  settlement,  he  bequeathed  to  its 
foundation  his  library  and  half  of  his  considerable 
fortune,  and,  what  was  better  still,  his  name, 
which  has  now  become  so  illustrious.  The  colonial 
record  is  quaint  and  touching :  — (^  After  God  had 
carried  us  safe  to  New  England  and  we  had 
builded  our  homes,  provided  necessaries  for  our 
livelihood,  reared  convenient  places  for  God's 
worship,  and  settled  the  civic  government,  one  of 
the  next  things  we  longed  for  and  looked  after 
was  to  advance  learning  and  perpetuate  it  to  pos 
terity,  dreadingvto  leave  an  illiterate  ministry  to 
our  churches  when  our  present  ministers  shall  lie 
in  the  dust.  And  as  we  were  thinking  and  consult 
ing  how  to  effect  this  great  work,  it  pleased  God 
to  stir  up  the  heart  of  one  Mr.  Harvard  (a  godly 
gentleman  and  lover  of  learning  then  living  among 
us)  to  give  the  one-half  of  his  estate  (it  being  in 
all  about  £1,700)  towards  the  erecting  of  a  college, 
and  all  his  library.  After  him  another  gave  £300, 
others  after  them  cast  in  more,  and  the  public 
hand  of  the  State  added  the  rest.  The  college  was 
by  public  consent  appointed  to  be  at  Cambridge, 
a  place  very  pleasant  and  accommodate,  and  is 
called  according  to  £he  name  of  its  first  founder, 
Harvard  College."  )lt  assumed  in  its  arms,  as 

290 


JOHN  HAEVAED 

you  will  see  in  the  window,  a  double  motto  —  v eri- 
tas,  truth,  a  word  broad  enough  to  embrace  all 
knowledge,  human  and  divine;  and,  what  meant 
the  same  thing,  Christo  et  Ecclesiae,  to  Christ  and 
his  Church,  that  the  supply  of  godly  ministers 
might  never  fail. 

And  now,  after  the  lapse  of  three  centuries,  the 
little  college  in  the  pathless  wilderness  has  become 
a  great  and  splendid  University,  strong  in  pres 
tige  and  renown,  rich  in  endowments,  and  richer 
still  in  the  pious  loyalty  of  its  sons,  who  supply 
all  its  wants  upon  demand  with  liberal  hand.  It 
is  not  unworthy  to  be  compared  with  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  those  ancient  nurseries  of  learning 
from  which  it  drew  its  first  life.  And  the  name 
of  John  Harvard  shares  the  fame  which  mankind 
accords  to  the  founders  of  States.  From  the  be 
ginning  until  now  it  has  occupied  the  foremost 
place  in  America  as  a  radiating  source  of  light 
and  reading.  In  all, the  great  movements  of  prog 
ress  by  which  the  United  States  have  advanced 
from  that  little  handful  of  storm-swept  immi 
grants  on  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  Imperial  Ee- 
public  of  to-day,  Harvard  University  and  its  sons 
have  had  their  full  share ;  and  without  disparage 
ment  to  her  younger  sisters,  who  are  many  and 
great,  it  may  truly  be  said  that,  as  she  was  first 
in  time,  she  has  always  been  first  in  position  and 
influence;  and  especially  in  the  matter  of  educa 
tion,  which  is  and  always  has  been  the  chief  indus 
try  of  America,  she  has  always  led  and  still  leads 
the  way.  So  considerable  have  been  the  contribu- 

291 


JOHN  HARVARD 

tions  of  her  sons  to  the  public  and  social  and 
intellectual  life  of  the  nation  that,  if  all  other 
books  and  papers  were  destroyed,  its  history 
could  be  fairly  reproduced  from  the  Harvard  Uni 
versity  Catalogue,  and  from  what  is  known  of  the 
lives  of  the  alumni  there  registered.  And  if  you 
ask  if  she  is  still  true  to  her  ancient  watchwords 
veritas  and  Christo  et  Ecclesiae,  I  can  answer 
that,  in  our  own  time,  in  a  single  quarter  of  a 
century,  she  has  sent  forth  Phillips  Brooks  to  be 
a  pillar  of  Christ  and  the  Church,  and  Theodore 
Roosevelt  to  be  a  champion  of  the  truth,  and  thou 
sands  more  who  in  humble  spheres  follow  in  their 
footsteps  and  share  their  faith  and  their  hope. 

Thus  the  name  of  John  Harvard,  unknown  and 
of  little  account  when  he  left  England,  has  been 
a  benediction  to  the  new  world,  and  his  timely  and 
generous  act  has  borne  fruit  a  millionfold.  Com 
ing  back  to  the  very  beginning  of  things,  we  are 
here  to-day  to  lay  a  wreath  upon  his  shrine.  I 
hope  that  this  memorial,  which  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  have  kindly  consented  to  accept  from  my 
hands,  will  long  remain  for  Americans  to  come 
and  see  the  very  spot  where  one  of  their  proudest 
institutions  had  its  origin,  and  to  remind  all  Eng 
lishmen  who  visit  it  how  inseparable  we  are  in 
history  and  destiny.  I  hope,  also,  that  it  may  tend 
to  keep  alive  the  kindred  spirit  between  the  Uni 
versities  of  the  two  countries;  for  Harvard  is 
just  as  surely  the  offspring  of  Cambridge  and  Ox 
ford,  and  the  own  daughter  of  Emmanuel,  as  old 
England  is  the  mother  of  New  England.  In  the 

292 


JOHN  HARVARD 

earlier  period  of  the  colony  we  had  one  hundred 
teachers  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  of 
these  seventy  were  from  Cambridge,  and  of  these 
again  twenty  were  from  Emmanuel.  So  long  as 
ideas  rule  the  world  let  all  the  Universities  of 
both  countries  stand  together  for  truth,  and  with 
one  voice  let  them  say  to  the  youth  of  both  lands, 
"  Take  fast  hold  of  instruction.  Let  her  not  go, 
for  she  is  thy  life."  I  am  under  deep  obligations 
to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  for  consenting  to  receive 
and  cherish  this  gift,  and  to  Mr.  LaFarge,  the 
distinguished  artist,  for  the  noble  manner  in 
which  he  has  designed  and  executed  it. 


293 


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